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We're always looking to further improve our fleet, so needless to say, Facelift didn't come home from Vertikal Days empty handed. We purchased two new Multitel SMX 225 and 10 new Niftylift HR 17s at the show. The super low weight Niftylift HR 17 four wheel drive really is head and shoulders above the rest, with one of the most impressive working envelopes in its class. Its compact base allows ... more
IPAF has asked the Strategic Forum and the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) to co-operate on re-establishing the Strategic Forum Plant Safety Group's sub-group on mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs). The organisation is keen to ensure that contractors are included in discussions about all aspects of MEWP operational safety on site, and hopes to merge its own UK MEWP safety forum w ... more
Analysis of data collected through IPAF's accident reporting scheme has revealed that delivery drivers are most at risk of being involved in accidents involving MEWPs, and should be the focus of training delivery programmes. Up until 30 April 2013, a total of 303 MEWP-related incidents had been reported by IPAF UK rental company members, involving either their own employees or those of custome ... more
The HSE has prosecuted two companies following the death of a Kent father and granddad, who died after plunging six metres through a fragile skylight because safety measures were neglected both by his employer and a major drinks wholesaler, on whose site they were working. Robert Rogers, 61, was working for Richard Parker, trading as Ovenden Engineering, which had been contracted by Allied Dome ... more
A haulage company, LE Jones Ltd, has been fined after an employee sustained injuries falling from a wooden pallet carried on a fork lift truck. The worker, who does not want to be named, suffered serious fractures to both his heels when he fell two metres while carrying out repairs to a lorry trailer unit on 22 February 2011. The employee was asked to repair a high level tear in the curtain ... more
A site supervisor has been fined after a colleague was left paralysed following a ten metre fall from the roof of a Tyneside Warehouse. Phillip Giles, who was a temporary employee, fell from an unprotected and fragile roof after the site's supervisor, Paul Burke, ignored his own company's safety policy and allowed workers to go onto the roof in order to remove cement sheets when gaining access ... more
A Wigan-based roofing firm has been fined after an employee was seriously injured when he fell ten metres through the roof of a school sports hall in Chorlton, Manchester. Lee Byrne, 29, was working on a project to replace the raised roof on the sports hall at Loreto High School in Chorlton with a flat roof when the incident happened on 9 November 2011. His employer, K Pendlebury & Sons ... more
While you might not associate access equipment with art, recent activity in East London means that might be set to change, after internationally recognised street artists used Facelift equipment to get to the height they needed to paint striking murals on high walls in Dalston and Shoreditch. As covered in a previous issue of High Times, iconic street artist Thierry Noir has brought his talent f ... more
We’re big fans of access manufacturer Niftylift, so we were delighted to learn that they have been chosen to receive not one but two prestigious Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, in the Innovation and International Trade categories. The Innovation award is granted to businesses that can prove that they have achieved commercial success through the design, development and manufacture of pi ... more
A solar panel installation company in York has fallen foul of the HSE after one of its employees fell four metres through the fragile roof of a pig shed at an East Yorkshire Farm. In just his second week working for Solar Fit PV Ltd, the man, who had no experience in solar panel installation, was on all fours cutting rails for the panels when he heard a crack and the roof suddenly gave way. ... more
