02.06.2008

Update on scissor crushing

We published a report on May 23rd concerning an accident in which a painter using a Haulotte Compact scissor lift was crushed against an overhead obstacle.

The initial report in WorkSafe Victoria's Safey Soapbox news report, referred to a bulletin that it had been issued a year earlier concerning a retrofit required for the control boxes on earlier Compact models.

In so doing it clearly inferred that there was an association with the latest accident and that retrofit.

Worksafe has now issued the following statement:

“In last week’s edition, Safety Soapbox ran an item regarding the incident with the painter being critically injured.

This item linked to an incident report published 2007 which was about the inadvertent activation of controls on a scissor lift elevating work platform.

The linking of the item and the incident report may have inferred that the causes of the two incidents were similar. This was not intended and Safety Soapbox apologises for any confusion that this may have caused.

The incident that occurred last week is still under investigation by WorkSafe Victoria."

Naturally Haulotte Australia has also complained to us regarding this article, although we merely referred to WorkSafe Victoria’s report on the incident, in the hope that if this was the case then any companies which had not modified their machines would now be prompted to do so before using them again.

While we can only report the facts that such organisations send us, we are more than happy to put the record straight when there has been an error, no matter who makes it.

We have modified the article in the archive, in order to reflect this new information and unreservedly apologise for any part we might have played in giving the error more exposure. We have also asked that the actual facts behind this case are published as soon as possible so that any lessons may learnt by others.

Here is a link to the article