Equipment World

March 2015

Equipment World Digital Magazine

Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/473140

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 54 of 79

Heavy lifting Information for this Safety Watch is from an accident report, the California Department of Public Health's Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation program and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. It is meant for general information only. The accident: Three construc- tion workers in a scissor lift were removing a planter box from the exterior wall of a parking deck. The workers were shoveling dirt and gravel into a plastic trash container situated on the lift's platform in an attempt to make the box lighter prior to removal. When the workers tried to pull the box from the wall, the box struck the lift, knocking it over. One of the workers fell 20 feet to the ground below. He was transported by emergency medi- cal services to a hospital, where he died from his injuries. The bottom line: The construc- tion company's foreman noted that morning that the scissor lift to be used was rated for 500 pounds, which would not support the weight of the three workers, the tools they would be using, and the planter box and contents. He told one worker to wait for the rest of the crew, and he would get them a larger lift. When the other two crewmembers arrived, they were unaware of the situation, and all three workers got into the scissor lift and fully extended it to gain access to the planter box. Once the workers had emptied some of the dirt and gravel from the box, they tried to pull it from the wall, creat- ing an unstable rocking motion that made the lift easy to tip over once the planter broke free. Follow the numbers Specs such as lift capacity are not guidelines; they're hard and fast rules to follow that are designed to keep you and your fellow crewmembers safe. In this acci- dent, the 500-pound load capacity of the scissor lift was exceeded by the combined weight of the three workers, the materials handled and the planter box itself. Al- though the foreman recognized the capacity problem, the chain of communication was broken when the entire crew was not notified a larger lift would be made avail- able. Furthermore, the workers us- ing the lift should have been able to gauge the lift was too small based on their training on work- ing at height. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when working on a lift: Size matters. Before you begin work, take note of the lift's capaci- ty, and assess the combined weight of everything on the platform, including workers, materials and tools. If you're going to be engag- ing in an application that is likely to move the platform in any way, make sure your lift has outriggers deployed throughout the job. Remember your training. Work- ing at height presents a different set of dangers than working on the ground. Your employer will have provided specific training on this topic, which you should complete prior to beginning any job that will require you to use a lift. Make sure you use the appropriate fall protection system, and familiarize yourself with the specific model of lift you'll be using. If it is a rental unit, take time to go over the manual – which they are required to provide with the machine – and go over any machine features spe- cific to the lift you'll be operating. If you feel the lift is undersized or inappropriate for the task at hand, alert your supervisor at once. safety watch | by Amy Materson | AMaterson@randallreilly.com EquipmentWorld.com | March 2015 55 Date of safety talk: Leader: _____________________ Attending: Illustration by Don Lomax Not paying attention to a lift's load capacity can get you into trouble

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Equipment World - March 2015