1) The man basket he was standing in was all fibreglass, presumably designed to be insulating.2) He was wearing rubber gauntlets to make the crimped connections to the live wires.
BUT if one, or both of his gauntlets were punctured then yes he could have got a belt, which even if it didn't kill him, would make him jump back, and because he wasn't wearing a harness or otherwise clipped on, he could easilly fall from the basket. That was my point.
When working live you are supposed to work in pairs, but his mate was at the other end of the site tidying away the tools, so wouldn't have been much help in the case of an incident.
Thing is Dave there is no fall arrest location in a MEWP basket, only fall prevention, though this may have prevented his fall, the anchor points in a MEWP basket are not rated to connect a fall restraint lanyard, we need to be careful of the terms here and mine may not be correct, I'd have to check.
However, a MEWP basket only has a location to which you can connect a short lanyard to stop you falling out of the basket.
If you are thrown clear and are falling or fall out of the basket then the harness which is designed to catch you before you land, does not have a suitable anchor point in a MEWP basket, if that makes sense.
Perhaps Noz can remember the terms as he did his MEWP licence more recently than myself!
However my description is correct, a MEWP basket harness anchor is not designed nor tested to attach a harness to which will stop an already falling person from hitting the ground, it is only to stop you from falling from or being thrown clear of the basket when driving the MEWP.
However, a DNO vehicle is almost certainly a "Transit" type van with a static boom, thus it cannot be driven unles the boom is stowed & locked, thus no need for a harness to stop you falling out when travelling.
The height of the basket rails is such that they are designed to prevent you from falling, just like a scaffold rails.
You may well find that the basket is insulated & tested to allow live working.
