The outriggers would be slightly less extended on that side since they were set on slightly higher ground (the yard versus the lower street side). Is is unusual to see outriggers set on dirt/ground without pads to distribute the load though.

I've looked at this and tried to figure how in the world an operator could have picked up any kind of load that would have resulted in such an accident without it having been felt the machine was about to lay over and can't get a handle on it.

Anytime you have a stable load in "lift mode" the operator should sense an impending problem and just stop or let it down!

Short of pure operator failure all I can think of is that he had hooked on to some kinda load that shifted when it was already off the ground and then tipped over the crane. Wish we could see what he was attempting to pick up.