Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report for New Jersey: Electrician Killed When Scissor Lift Tips Over

摘要

On September 7, 2000, a 36-year-old electrician was killed when his scissor lift toppled over as he was preparing to install a light under a building soffit. The incident occurred at a bus terminal where the victim's employer had been contracted to install 36 high-intensity lights around the perimeter of the two-story building. A crew of three workers was installing the last few lights in the rear of the building, located about 25 feet from the edge of a bay. Due to a large awning that covered an outdoor patio, the crew could not use their cherry-picker lift truck and instead used a battery-powered, hydraulic scissor lift to reach the soffit. Using a large sheet of plywood as a base on the ground, the crew positioned the lift near the side of the building. The supervisor raised the lift to test it before turning it over to the victim with his job instructions. At about 4:30 p.m. the victim's co-worker was sawing wood on the ground below the lift when he heard the victim cry out and saw the lift fall over. The lift's work platform crashed to the ground at the edge of the bay, throwing the victim headfirst into the shallow water.