Fire Company Fined for Scissor Lift Crush Accident

Mobile elevated work platforms (MEWPs), such as scissor lifts, are increasingly used as a safe and versatile means of access to work at height. They’re particularly suitable for fire systems installation and maintenance in larger buildings (with strong floors!).

Although they’re expensive to hire or buy, relative to a tower scaffold, there are many advantages — engineers can reposition themselves frequently, because the machines can be manoeuvred by the user without the need to climb out of the carrier.

Despite the fact that the machines have the potential to make work at height much safer than it might otherwise be, there’s still a risk of injury, for instance, if the MEWP overturns, if it runs into structures or pedestrians, or if materials or equipment are dropped onto others below.

Firesafe Installations’ prosecution
The Health & Safety Executive recently prosecuted Firesafe Installations Ltd. of Knowsley after a fatal accident which occurred in December 2009. Employee Shaun Scurry was working at Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, East London, when he became trapped between the guardrail of the scissor lift and some overhead ducting. A colleague was present nearby but was unfamiliar with the ground-level controls on the machine and was not able to release him and bring him down.

The HSE criticised the company’s arrangements for familiarisation training, saying that although Firesafe Installations could not be held directly accountable for the death, the company should have done more.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Eileen Gascoigne said, “This tragic case underlines the importance of familiarisation training — not only for direct operatives, but also those who may be required to take control in the event of an emergency.”

Firesafe Installations pled guilty at Southwark Crown Court to breaching the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. It was fined GB pound 30,000 and ordered to pay GB pound 29,000 in costs.

Research outcome
The incident is an example of the type of accident reviewed in a research report published by the HSE in February 2013. The report analysed the common factors in accidents involving MEWPs which occurred in several countries — primarily the UK, the US, New Zealand, and Australia. The work focused on MEWP occupants being trapped against overhead or adjacent objects whilst in the platform of the MEWP.

One specific risk of operating a MEWP in a confined area, is that the operator may be pushed onto the control panel when in collision with a structural element. This can lead to “sustained involuntary operation” of the machine, crushing the driver and simultaneously preventing him or her from reaching the stop controls.

The commonalities among the accidents analysed included:

• Operator error when operating the controls
• Failure by the operator to observe or perceive surrounding hazards
• Leaning over the side rail of the platform while manoeuvring
• Poor MEWP condition/maintenance
• Unstable ground conditions
• Insufficient training and experience
• Working alone
• A lack of rescue procedures

Fire installation and maintenance engineers are likely to use MEWPs sporadically, as much of their work will be at ground level or use other forms of access. This category of irregular user is one identified in the research as being at particular risk of making mistakes.

How to respond?
If your staff is using MEWPs, make sure that they not only have formal training in the type of machine, but also receive routine familiarisation training at each location and each time a different make or model of MEWP is used. For each job there should be someone present at ground level who knows how to operate the ground controls, including the emergency descent controls.

For those who wish to know more, the most direct source of guidance on the topic has been published by the Strategic Forum Plant Safety Group. The free-to-download information sheet is titled Best Practice Guidance for MEWPs – avoiding trapping / crushing injuries to people in the platform.