Aerial Manlift Hazards
Aerial manlifts are machinery that use either a series of folding, linked supports, like a boom lift or an articulated boom lift or a scissor lift. These industrial types of machinery allow employees to access hard-to-reach areas. In some ways, these machinery have made construction much safer and easier, although, the overall safety which comes with the unparalleled mobility of aerial manlifts has applied a new list of hazards that could accidentally result in severe injury or even death to unaware drivers.
Falls
Falls from a man lift often occurs when workers cannot secure the harness to the lift or fail to or are unable to wear a safety harness. Falls can take place when someone on the platform acts wrongly and takes part in an activity such as climbing the guard rails to gain added height. Furthermore, mishaps could be caused if the ground-based operator causes the machinery to move in an unexpected motion before the worker being properly secured.
Numerous workers also fall because the base of their equipment is inadvertently struck by some other heavy thing. In this situation, the force of the blow below becomes amplified by the lift's length, therefore causing the employee to be abruptly catapulted off of the platform. Clearly this hazardous action has terrible outcome.
Tip-Overs
Sadly, boom lifts are easily prone to tipping over. Tip-overs can happen in any kind of lift, but are more common in articulated boom lifts. As boom lifts can move both horizontally and vertically, they are capable of changing the equipment's overall center of gravity. Therefore, if the lift is parked on an incline of some kind or over loaded, totally extending the boom when it is in the wrong position can lead to a tip-over situation.