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Operating Aerial Lifts Safely
Strap in, stay focused, stay safe
By David Rattigan
Today's aerial lift is designed with safety in mind, but the most important thing in keeping tree care workers alive is the mindset of the operator.
Whether you're climbing to great heights or barely off the ground, tree work can be dangerous. If there's any doubt of that, one need just check the statistics, keeping in mind the general belief in the industry that accidents are underreported.
Bucket trucks and aerial lifts have made work in tall trees easier and safer, and a passerby checking out a tree care crew might note a business-like, matter-of-fact approach most crews take to tree trimming or removal jobs, even in difficult circumstances. With an experienced crew doing the work, even the tough jobs often look easy.
But when the workers' approach becomes too relaxed, the results can be tragic.
"I have to look primarily at fatal injuries, because really that's the only thing we have good statistics for," says Peter Gerstenberger, TCIA's senior advisor for safety, standards and compliance. "The leading cause of aerial lift fatalities are falls from the aerial lift, and the leading cause of the falls is failure to use any fall protection whatsoever in the bucket. It really hasn't proven to make any difference what sort of fall protection one uses - although that's a controversial issue with OSHA but whether the person is using any form or fall protection at all is more telling."
According to Department of Labor statistics compiled between 1984 and 2002, there were a shade more than 300 fatal accidents in tree care, of which 25 percent were falls. Of the 67 falls, 20 were bucket operators. Gerstenberger notes that in TCIA's experience, the federal statistics usually reflect about one-third the actual numbers of fatal accidents found through independent research.
Manufacturers of aerial lifts continue to design lifts that are safer than ever, with a variety of additional features that make the lifts smoother and safer to operate. But the daily recognition of just how dangerous this work is, and adherence to a routine of training, inspection, and use of proper techniques, is another important piece of the safety equation.
Sometimes, operators simply get too comfortable in a dangerous position.
"There are two things working against us," Gerstenberger notes, "the complacency factor and - this is somewhat age related - the feeling of invincibility, and/or just the macho attitude."
Even for those with high skill level and comfort, there are inherent dangers that come from being that far above the ground, and working at times in proximity to power lines. Bouncers - branches or other heavy pieces that veer off course - can strike the boom or whatever it's mounted on.
The second leading cause of lift fatalities is the failure (and breakage) of a portion of the boom, typically the rotating mechanism or Fiberglas components.
Gerstenberger notes that these are usually the result of two factors: "very old aerial lifts, and inadequate inspection - which could mean not enough inspection, or not frequent enough inspection."
But with such a high number of falls, significant evidence points to the overconfidence of operators, reflected by the fact that a bucket truck typically comes with a safety harness that often goes unused.
"If it's new, the harness is provided by the manufacturer," Gerstenberger says. "Typically, it's around somewhere and they have a body belt and a lanyard, or they may have a full-body harness, but they just don't like the aggravation of putting it on and taking it off."
Evolution of the lift
John Mlaker, president of Wisconsin-based MAT-3, Inc., which manufactures five types of truck-mounted aerial lifts, notes that the evolution of lift design includes more built-in safety components. Booms are built with better insulation and better strength. Fail-safe devices are built into the mechanisms.
Safety features that some manufacturers used to use as selling points for their machines have now become standard. Many of those safety features have been included to compensate for operator error that might come as a result of an insouciant, or overly relaxed, approach.
His company's lifts include interlock systems to cut down on operator accidents. For example, outriggers need to be deployed in order to operate the aerial power. And, at the platform controller, an operator needs to squeeze the trigger and hold it in order to then direct a bucket movement. "Just moving the handle does not cause the bucket to move," he says. "You have to do that interlock action to make it operate."
"A lot of it keys back to accidents that have occurred in the past, where operators would just try to operate off the side of the truck without putting outriggers down, and tipping units over," Mlaker says, adding, "or something happening where, they're up either near power lines or up in the tree and something falls into the control area and moves the handle; the next thing you know they're in a dangerous position. So the interlocks have evolved to try to make the unit safer to operate in various conditions."
"What's starting to evolve over time is that safety standards for aerial devices are slowly coming around to making these features required on all units," Mlaker says.
Jon Hedlund, National Sales Manager for South Carolina-based NiftyLift, Inc. USA, the manufacturer of hydraulic truck- and track-mounted, tow-behind and self propelled lifts, says every manufacturer will see something in his product that makes it safer compared to its competition.
"I think mine are built safer because they're hydraulic, over electric," Hedlund says. "You're not relying on solenoids and relays and electronics to function correctly. You're in 100 percent control 100 percent of the time with a hydraulic over an electric-powered unit." That is not the case with some other mini or spider-type units in the industry, he says.
In the case of imported machines, one safety advantage they tout is adherence to the stricter standards in Europe and in Canada, which upgraded its tree care standards in 2007, according to Lenny Polonski, president of Massachusetts-based Extreme Access Solutions, a distributor of Teupen spider lifts (manufactured in Germany).
"I would say Europe, in some areas, is 30 years ahead of us," says Polonski.
One of those areas is in aerial lifts, he says, where booms must pass a 200-percent overload test and otherwise prove themselves in terms of stability and strength. Another advantage of his lifts is that they have proportional controls, he says.
"With proportional controls, you can open the control completely and it will just smoothly move the machine," Polonski says, comparing it to hydraulic controls. "It's like riding an elevator. It's extremely smooth and easy to operate. You don't have to worry about the basket dropping from under your feet, or flying up, or to the left or to the right. That's what happens to aerial lifts that don't have proportional controls."
While the proportional controls are one not mandated by any standards, they add to the safety. "It's like having power steering; power steering is not mandated, but power steering is nice to have," says Polonski, who says that the technology is regularly used in the new lifts used in Europe.
Another safety feature on his spider-type lifts, Polonski says, is, on the tracked lifts, tracks that can be adjusted vertically and keep the unit stable when traveling on the side of a hill. "The world is not flat," he says.
Polonski makes another allusion to the automobile when explaining American workers' reluctance to make safety changes, such as adopting the safety suit as standard work attire.
"Everybody in the tree industry, whether you're climbing, in the bucket or on the ground, should wear high-visibility attire," Polonski says. "When you drive down the highway, you see all the state workers and the state police with safety vests. (On a tree-care site), it's no different."
Polonski makes his point with a story from TV host Jay Leno - a car enthusiast - who described a salesman in the 1960s selling Leno's father a car featuring a new innovation called seatbelts, and explaining that he probably wouldn't want them, but they could just be stuffed inside the seat. "A lot of these accidents are needless, and preventable," Polonski says.
A safety movement
All manufacturers offer training and annual inspections, which might also be done by an outside company. Daily "eyeball surveys" are recommended, and a quarterly in-house check-up is also a good idea, Mlaker says, in addition to the annual inspection. Operator training is the key need for workers, as well as re-training. That is partly because not all operating units are the same, he notes, even if they're made by the same manufacturer.
"It could be that, over time, they can develop some bad habits," Mlaker says of operators. "There might be things that they find that the unit can do that it actually shouldn't be doing. So, in going back over the training, they learn that this is what the unit can actually do, and what you should, or should not, be doing with that unit."
Often, during the annual inspection, the inspectors will find that operators will have rigged the devices to bypass some of the safety protections, such as the interlocking control. "They'll hotwire it or tape a switch shut, so they don't have to do the added action," he says. "It becomes a safety issue."
Those involved on both the manufacturing and user end hope that the revisions of safety standards (an effort led by Altec Industries, in alliance with OSHA), new safety features and the general focus on greater safety within the industry will lead to fewer accidents in years to come.
Hedlund makes the point that, with the increased focus on safety, tree care work is getting safer.
"The awareness is getting there because OSHA is really cracking down on knuckleheads out in the field, getting into a lift without being aware of what's around them," Hedlund says. "They can be dangerous lifts, but if you've got awareness (and training), they're not dangerous at all."
Noting that his company is relatively young in the tree industry, Hedlund says the use of a lift at all is still a step forward for safety in the tree care industry.
"Number one, climbing a tree is becoming a lost art," Hedlund opines, adding, "Liability insurance is sky high." You're always going to have to get high in a tree in this industry to make a living, he says, and an aerial lift, whether it be truck mounted or a self-propelled mini or spider-type lift, gets you there safer and is a lot more efficient.
"If it makes it more efficient, you're working smarter and working safer," Hedlund says.
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