31.05.2007

Scissor fall

A man was seriously injured this morning after falling from a self propelled scissor lift while working on the Lodge construction project in Detroit.

The man was working on an overpass bridge from the closed highway below, and was probably around four metres high. It is not clear how he fell, but he landed on his back and was conscious when he was taken away to the hospital..
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The lift after the man had fallen

The accident happened at the Meyers Road overpass, near Seven Mile Road. The unidentified worker was transported to Sinai-Grace Hospital, where he is in serious condition.

Vertikal Comment

This is an unusual accident and most likely involved a worker transferring from the scissor lift to the bridge parapet. Falls form scissor lifts, when they do happen are almost always due to climbing the guardrails to leave or enter the platform at height. Or from standing on the guardrails to gain a precious few centimetres of reach.

It seem a bit pedantic to say that you should never climb out of the platform when at height , however this is the biggest cause of falls from scissors and given how safe one is, the practice causes an unsafe situation on what is an exceptionally safe piece ot equipment.

In an accident such as this, the wearing of a harness might have prevented the fall. BUT it mist also have pulled the scissor lift over on him, compounding an already serious injury, or it might have caused him to swing into the lift mechanism smashing his head.

I for one would rather take my chances with a fall from a scissor as this man has, those who advocate harnesses in scissors are in our opinion misguided