15.11.2011
Scissors and staging
Spotted in the prestigious Mall of America in Bloomington Minnesota a definite Death Wish platform.
Our reader, working on the site spotted a painting contractor with union trained staff with all the right equipment available to them if they needed it, chose instead to rig up a highly unsafe temporary cantilevered platform to reach a difficult area alongside an escalator.
Please register to see all images
The staging platfrom on the scissors in the lowered position
The rig involved two slab electric scissor lifts with fully extended decks at the end of each of the decks the contractor had installed short ladders which they had clipped to the guardrails with vice grips.
Please register to see all images
In the raised position to reach the right hand wall - not sure where the two men are?
Then a long staging board/plank was placed on a rung of each ladder, thus providing a cantilever platform from which they could work. The makeshift platform was at least 17 or 18 metres above the ground. In addition to the unsafe nature of the rig, there appears to be no guardrails or toeboards on the staging deck.
Please register to see all images
Detail of the set up, note the vice grips handles have been taped up as a 'safety measure'
Our photographer pointed out the set up to the safety officer while men were working on the rig, but after having a chat with the men left them to continue working.
The incident occurred at night while the main part of the Mall was closed, but the restaurants were open and other trades were working below.
Most definitely a Death Wish if we ever saw one.
Daniel Woodall
As both a Union menber and a Safety professional, these pictures make me sick. The painters should have been removed from the project and the safety officer needs to be fired and have any certifications revoked, and the painting contractor severly repremanded.
By looking at the pictures its apparent that there is enough room between the wall and escelator for a scaffold company to build a suitable cantilivered scaffold to access the work area.