3 stranded in cherry picker breakdown

THREE men were left stranded 40ft in the air when their cherry picker broke down.

Fire crews used a turntable ladder mounted on a truck to rescue the workers. Picture: Ian Rutherford

It is understood that they had been working at Old Pentland’s Tarmac near Loanhead when the machine broke down yesterday afternoon.

Fire crews managed to get the men down using a turntable ladder mounted on a truck.

They received a call shortly after 3.30pm and had rescued the hapless workers less than an hour later.

A witness, who did not wish to be named, estimated that the workers had been on top of the platform for about three hours.

But he was not sure how much of that time they had been working and how much of it they had been stuck.

He said they had 
been working on a radio mast and appeared to have been servicing it when their cherry picker broke down. The man said he had been “surprised” to see such a large number of emergency vehicles to deal with such a “minimal problem”.

He told the News: “There were about six or seven fire appliances, an ambulance and a red fire brigade car.

“And the last vehicle to arrive was the one they actually needed. Is that a good use of ratepayers’ money?”

A spokesman from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We rescued three men from the cherry picker.

“They were ten to 12 metres up.

“Appliances from Liberton and Dalkeith, and a line rescue team from Tollcross and Newcraighall were on the scene.”

The fire service insisted there had been five vehicles on the scene.