Accident investigators focus on processes; Rusch set to be exonerated.
It is just over two months since the accident that killed Ad Swanink, robbing the demolition industry of one of its true innovators and tarnishing the largely unblemished reputation of the high reach excavator industry in a tragic split second.
DemolitionNews understands that the machine itself – so long the subject of analysis and conjecture – has now been released by the coroner who is awaiting the findings of a more detailed health and safety report. However, the fact that it has been released certainly suggests that the machine and, more specifically, its manufacturer Rusch are set to be exonerated and that the accident was most likely caused by human error as we had previously reported.
Although it would be misguided to speculate on the eventual findings of the health and safety investigation, we further understand that the machine’s collapse was not a single action but may have occurred in at least two stages, and that Swanink may have returned to the machine up to two minutes after an initial and partial collapse.
Whatever happened on that fateful day and regardless of the outcome, we sincerely hope that Rusch receives a formal exoneration from the investigators. To lose one industry innovator in this accident is tragic; to lose another by association would be a travesty.
