08.02.2019

Scissor lift stupidity

Spotted at the end of October in the centre of Stroud, Gloucestershire in the UK, a man using a compact Rough Terrain scissor lift to work on the façade of an old building.

This is an excellent machine for the job, and he is using the levelling jacks to great effect, exactly as they were intended. BUT he has no mats/spreader plates under the jack pads, in spite of the fact that he is operating partly on an old pedestrian pavement/sidewalk, and partly on the tarmac road, with a strong likelihood that there is an old cellar or other void below.
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Working in the street - never mind the traffic

OK it's true that the machine is not that heavy, but the pads are small and given he is working at full height with some sway inevitable, the ground bearing pressures on each jack can be high and variable. On top of that he has made no attempt to cordon the machine off from passing traffic in a busy street, or to alert pedestrians to the risk of walking below a work area. On top of that, one wonders if he has a permit to work in the street – and what might a traffic warden do given that the machine is set up on double yellow lines – which indicates ‘No parking or stopping’.

Our correspondent said: “I did try and talk to him but he could not he hear me due to the engine running the onboard generator.”
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No mats, not cones or barriers and no parking

Definitely one for our Death Wish series.

Have a safe weekend.