An Oh Crap moment

[Richard Cranium]

I am not convinced it was caused by a hydraulic failure yet. There are often safety check valves in critical hydraulic systems that would prevent what we see in the pic if a plumbing hydraulic failure. A structural failure could cause a hydraulic cylinder failure resulting in the situation in the pic AND causing loss of fluid noted that a safety check valve is incapable of preventing.
The loading of a rear engine car, and not a light one, puts a majority of the vehicles weight cantilevered at the farthest point, is a worst-case load scenario.

Notice the puddle ....

 

[j-c-c-62]

The puddle is by itself is not indicative of what first caused the leakage.
As I stated previously high-risk hydraulics, overhead lifts, high value lifts, deadline oriented, etc can have systems in place to prevent catastrophic hydraulic load failures.
The picture you have shared doesn't indicate anything structurally damaged, like failed suspension cables, gross misalignment of the cantilever base attachment point, etc
A hydraulic hose like a fan belt. power steering hose can fail at any time without warning, the fact with so many similar lifts are in service for so many years with so few similar accidents reported, leaves me to suspect something odd went wrong here.

Bottom line, can't see what the operator did wrong here yet.

 

[Richard Cranium]

The puddle is by itself is not indicative of what first caused the leakage.
As I stated previously high-risk hydraulics, overhead lifts, high value lifts, deadline oriented, etc can have systems in place to prevent catastrophic hydraulic load failures.
The picture you have shared doesn't indicate anything structurally damaged, like failed suspension cables, gross misalignment of the cantilever base attachment point, etc
A hydraulic hose like a fan belt. power steering hose can fail at any time without warning, the fact with so many similar lifts are in service for so many years with so few similar accidents reported, leaves me to suspect something odd went wrong here.

Bottom line, can't see what the operator did wrong here yet.

Well, obviously something catastrophic happened & either the bottom blew out of the jack or the entire jack came loose and dropped. You can clearly see something fell vertically out of the bottom of the trailer.

 

[davek]

So the real question is does he keep his job or is he blamed.

 

[Triplegreen500]

I find it hard to believe these don't have safety shoes like shop lifts and elevators....

 

[QuickBpBp]

Notice the puddle ....

After looking at the picture it could have been much worse...

 

[DeltaV]

For posterity: