Following a July 2026 incident in which an employee was seriously injured when a truck-mounted concrete placing boom overturned causing the boom to strike the employee, WorkSafe has issued a safety alert to remind employers and self-employed persons of the risks associated with concrete placing equipment, such as truck-mounted concrete boom pumps and placing booms.
Common safety issues with truck-mounted concrete-placing booms that can put employees at serious risk of injury or death, include:
- Setting up near excavations, trenches, holes, cellars, basements, pits, or backfilled ground can create a risk of ground instability and collapse.
- ‘Short blocking’ outriggers, not fully extending the outrigger and locking it into position can create instability and increase the risk of a rollover.
- Undersized packing with insufficient strength or load-bearing area, resulting in outriggers sinking into the ground
- Selecting inadequately sized equipment can increase the risk of truck-mounted concrete booms being placed in unsafe areas, like uneven or unstable surfaces.
To eliminate or reduce the risk of injury from rollovers when operating truck-mounted concrete-placing booms, you need to:
- Choose the safest location for the concrete placing equipment and the size of the equipment to ensure it can safely reach the work area.
- Ensure the concrete-placing equipment is set up on reasonably level ground that has adequate surface-bearing capacity to support the fully loaded working pump and any delivery trucks.
- Unless approved by a suitably competent person, such as a geotechnical or structural engineer, avoid setting up the concrete-placing equipment near:
- excavations, trenches or holes.
- cellars, basements, pits or back-filled ground
- Have a suitably competent person select and install appropriately sized packing, bog mats or road plates. These should be calculated in accordance with the concrete pump’s safe use information.
- Ensure outriggers are extended (swung out if applicable), lowered and locked in position before the boom is erected.
- Avoid short-blocking wherever practicable, as there is an increased risk of overturning.
- Ensure the manufacturer's specified maximum drop hose length relative to the boom length is not exceeded, as this can reduce stability and increase the risk of overturning.
WorkSafe recommends employers comply with their legal obligations under the OHS Act and OHS Regulations through regular inspections of concrete-placing equipment to the extent necessary to ensure that the risks associated with its use are monitored, and ensuring that operators and employees are suitably trained, competent and licenced.
Employers can find further information about their duties and responsibilities at:
- Safety-alert-poster-safer-use-concrete-placing-equipment-2026-09.pdf
- Industry standard: Concrete pumping | WorkSafe Victoria
- Mobile concrete boom pump safety | WorkSafe Victoria
- AS 2550.15:2019 - Cranes, hoists and winches - Safe use, Part 15: Concrete placing equipment
Read more: Overturn-prevention of concrete-placing equipment | WorkSafe Victoria