Mobile Scissor Lifts

Almost all the best scissor lifts, produced by industry leaders like JLG and Genie, are mobile scissor lifts.

Almost all the best scissor lifts, produced by industry leaders like JLG and Genie, are mobile scissor lifts. These lifts are able to park as close to the work area as possible due to their four wheeled engine. Companies are increasingly making scissor lifts that allow the lift to be driven while employees are completing their task on the aerial platform.

This is really the next generation in technology for scissor lifts. The United States government department that deals with worker safety (OSHA) has some concerns about the equipment. The added mobility could lead to accidents, especially if the machine is not properly maintained or operated in a reckless manner. As these machines have grown in popularity and availability, there has been an increase in falls and accidents.

Approximately 17 percent of construction, painting, and dry walling deaths occur while using a mobile elevated work platform, compared with only 3 percent using standard aerial lifts. Scissor lifts have a 10% higher fatality rate than boom lifts, most likely due in part to their use in dry walling and painting.

The OSHA Standards Committee analyzed all the data regarding elevated, mobile work platforms, and in 1998 made the choice to include aerial and scissor lifts in its standards for construction scaffold. One thing that their investigation showed was that the acts that led to fatalities on aerial and scissor lifts were similar to the acts that led to fatalities on construction scaffolding. The main point of their results was that most often human error was to blame, not the malfunctioning of the lifts.

 

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