23.05.2008

Painter crushed against roof

A 70 year old painter was critically injured yesterday when he was crushed against a factory roof in a partly completed factory in East Bentleigh , Melbourne Australia.

The man, who has not been named was working alone and was found unconscious by a work colleague. He had been crushed between the roof and the guardrails of the scissor lift he was using.

A spokesperson for the ambulance service said: "He's been squashed against the roof. and suffered upper body injuries. He was in a critical condition and has been taken to the Alfred hospital. The boys have worked for quite some time to resuscitate him.''

Worksafe issues reminder

No further details are available at this time, but after visiting the scene Worksafe Victoria issued a reminder regarding a recall/modification to older Haulotte Compact scissor lifts.

The recall/bulletin was issued in February 2007, following an incidentin which the operator leaned back against the trigger side of the joystick which on early models was unprotected, propelling him into an overhead beam.

A retrofit protection bar for fitting to the control box was issued for all units in Australia and New Zealand,

This seemed to suggest that this machine was not fitted with the modification. We have since learnt that the lifts was barely three months old and was therefore not covereve at all by this bulletin.

Haulotte Australia has also said that this accident was in not at all related to the chain of events in that 2007 accident.