21.08.2006

Liverpool accident update

We have learnt that the truck mounted lift that was involved in yesterday’s fatal accident was a Versalift VST4000 sold to Highland Access around nine years ago.

Versalift UK told Vertikal.Net that it has not yet been able to determine the cause of the accident, but as an extreme cautionary measure it is in the process of notifying all owners of lifts with a similar design, to take them out of service until it can ascertain what cased the jib failure.

The recall covers NON-Insulated versions of the VST4000, VST 4500 and VST 4800 that are fitted with fly booms/articulating jibs, all of which were a special design with very few sold. Versalift says that up to 12 units are involved. So far nine owners have been traced and contacted.

As all machines in this family were sold around nine to 10 years ago, it is possible that one or two may have been exported or taken out of service.

Versalift has also said that it hopes to be able to give the all-clear to most, if not all, of the units it has asked to be taken out of service, as soon as it has been allowed to do a detailed inspection of the lift which has been impounded.

Man dies in work platform fall

Vertikal Comment

Accidents involving any type of lift are of course not good news, most of all one must feel for the families of those who loose their lives or suffer serious injury. But it is also very traumatic for work colleagues, the employer, the rental company and the manufacturer, especially in the first 48 hours, when all too often the full and precise details are often not known.

Fortunately our industry is a very safe one and the number of such incidents are few, particularly when you consider how many machines are out there working every hour of every day...

Of the few accidents that do occur, the vast majority are down to very avoidable errors by the operator, such as setting outriggers up on soft ground without proper mats or standing on the platform guardrails.

Accidents where a machine failure may have been the cause are thankfully very rare indeed. When they do occur they are a true test of the manufacturer and often the rental company that owns the lift. The manufacturer must quickly try and determine if the failure could be down to a design issue or not and if it might… does it affect other units?

Good information is often difficult to get hold of during the first 24 hours, which causes a great deal of angst among manufacturer’s staff. What it does next is critical and can make or break a small producer.

No one appreciates a sweeping recall notice that appears to simply pass the responsibility down the line, but equally a manufacturer that buries its head in the sand and denies all, is seen as irresponsible and threatens to bring disrepute to the industry as a whole.

In this case it would appear that Versalift is handling the situation in textbook fashion. On learning of the incident this morning it contacted the HSE offering full co-operation with the investigation and requested access to the machine. It was then able to obtain some general photography which allowed it at least to eliminate all machines with a different jib design.

This led it to take the precaution to notify owners of those units with a similar top end, to stop using the lifts, at least until it could inspect the machine and obtain a better idea of what might have occurred.

While this line of action might appear to be obvious, there have been a number of incidents in the past three years where such an open and responsible approach has not been the case.