26.08.2011

Notre Dame launches aerial lift safety campaign

The University of Notre Dame has launched its aerial lift awareness campaign as agreed in its final settlement with Indiana Occupational Health and Safety Administration (IOSHA) following the fatal accident with a scissor lift in October 2010.

The key element to the campaign is a new website complete with downloads that uses name/brand Lift UpRight and web address liftupright.org. The bulk of the site is dedicated to four short videos, on the right set up, the right training, the right weather information and having the right safety contacts.
Thus… don’t go Up unless its Right – UpRight.
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The liftupright website

The videos highlight – among other things – the following points:
-No one should go up in a lift unless they have received the right training.
-Anyone using a lift should first read and understand the operator’s manual.
-No one should go up if they do not think it is safe – every user should therefore have the right of veto.
-That anemometers ought to be on hand to check the wind speed and that a maximum wind speed should be clearly posted and that ISO recommends 28MPH.
-That the machine must be set up properly on firm level ground
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The safety videos are clear, concise and well done

The campaign was launched in conjunction with several public and private agencies and organisations and includes links to useful information and associations.

Barry Sullivan, the father of Declan who died in the tragic accident said: “We believe this is a positive step in preventing aerial lift accidents in the future. Our hope is that schools that use these lifts will pay attention to the information presented on the website and make sure to institute a robust lift safety programme.”
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Downloads from the site include posters and this maximum wind speed notice

Vertikal Comment

We have been critical of Notre Dames report on the accident and the final settlement with IOSHA. Interestingly and rightly it stresses, above all else, the importance of proper training and instruction. This in spite of its in house accident investigation report concluding that training would have made little difference in how its lifts were used on the day of its accident. Yet following the advice on the Lift UpRight web site would have saved Sullivan’s life

While the web site reproduces material already available elsewhere, it has done so with great professionalism, producing a very clean and clear tool (with all videos set in a sports environment) that students and faculty can use to gain a rapid and solid understanding of the rules and what’s required when using aerial lifts.

It is an easy to use unambiguous, user-friendly site that can impart the key knowledge and basics in less than half an hour. If used widely it could make a significant contribution to scissor lift safety, particularly in college or sports training environments.

Overall we were impressed with what Notre Dame has done and it suggests that IOSHA may have extracted a commitment of real value that could well prevent Declan Sullivan from becoming just another statistic.

The key is for the college to promote the web site and its content to all other schools and sports institutions across the country and further afield, to the point where they are not only aware of it now, but that it becomes a regular source of information for sports departments. Ideally it should reach the level where anyone and everyone in such an institution that comes into contact with aerial lifts, takes a look well before they consider going up in one.