Lifting safety standards

In 2010, the Lift and Elevator Industry Association made improving workplace safety one of its top
priorities. A year later, what has been achieved?

The lift and escalator industry has a good safety record when it comes to the people who use its products but there is an acknowledgement that more needs to be done to safeguard its workers.

In its annual review for 2011, the Lift and Elevator Industry Association (LEIA) said that there have been three deaths in recent months. The organisation’s president, Andrew Evans, has made improving workplace safety a top priority.

To this end, the association has produced the LEIA Safety Charter, which Evans says is designed to “encourage a culture of constant vigilance amongst all involved in the lift and escalator industry”.

The charter is not a prescriptive set of rules as many companies already have their own safety regulations and comply with both the Health & Safety at Work Act and British Standards.

“The LEIA Safety Charter is designed to complement these, not override them,” Evans explains.

LEIA members are being asked to sign the charter to demonstrate their commitment to constant vigilance and doing the right thing by their employees because they want to, rather than simply following a set of instructions.

The charter supports the recommendations included in the association’s Lift & Escalator Site Handbook, which itself builds on the benchmarks established in the code of practice for British Standards BS7255 – Safe Working on Lifts and BS7801 – Safe Working on Escalators and Moving Walks in Use.

Member companies that work on equipment that falls within the scope of these standards are expected – at a minimum – to comply with these recommendations. Again, the LEIA Safety Charter does not attempt to override the requirements in the standards, rather it emphasises the priority measures necessary to avoid serious accidents.

The charter is also designed to prompt questions about workplace safety and encourage companies to think about the various risks and hazards their employees could face.

It does, however, identify three key areas that are linked to many of the serious incidents reported by the industry. They are:
• Falls from height
• Moving masses
• Electricity

Falls from height highlights the need for employers to ensure safety at landings. They should consider whether gaps around cars and doorways are big enough to slip through; whether something could be dropped, either unintentionally or deliberately, down a gap and injure someone working below; and whether engineers have adequate equipment to prevent this from happening.

Moving masses, meanwhile, looks at the movement of cars, counterweights, sheaves, motors, ropes, chains, frames and all the other parts that make up lifts and escalators.

Employers should ensure that before any of these elements are allowed to move or operate that everyone is clear or that the stop button has been pressed to prevent movement.

Finally, electricity is flagged up as a well-known but “invisible” hazard. Again,companies should think about whether their engineers have the right equipment to lock off and tag out controls before they start work.

Furthermore, while live working should be avoided if at all possible, if it is necessary, LEIA members need to have developed a system – and effectively communicated that system to their employees – to ensure work is carried out safely and with the right equipment.

LEIA safety manager, Lawrence Dooley, said: “By signing the Safety Charter and sending a copy to LEIA, member companies demonstrate their commitment to safe working at all times, undertaking to review their working procedures to ensure compliance with the standards and recommendations.”

Elsewhere, LEIA has thrown its weight behind a new European standard designed to ensure that owners of escalators and moving walkways continue to offer the highest possible safety levels.

According to the association, there are over 75,000 escalators and moving walkways in the European Union (EU). More than half of these were installed in the last century. In the UK, there
are some 7,500 units handling around 75,000 passengers every day.

To most of these passengers, one elevator or walkway will appear much like any other, but this is not the case. The industry monitors accidents and incidents to develop better products that incorporate the lessons learned. However, many of the older installations in the UK and around the EU will not have benefitted from these updates.

While users of escalators and walkways may not be aware of potential risks, they would nevertheless expect suppliers and operators to have minimised those risks and maximise safety.

In 2010, this obligation was underlined by the new European standard EN 115-2:2010, which sets out a common approach to improving safety, as well as clear procedures for achieving acceptable levels of protection for users.

It also lists risks and the corrective steps that owners of escalators and walkways can take in a step-by-step guide. Following the publication of the standard, the European Lift Association (ELA) produced a brochure describing the key risks and corrective measures laid out in BS EN-115 2:2010.

LEIA has backed the brochureas an “excellent tool for owners and operators that clearly identifies to laypersons where risks may lie and how to reduce them”.

It added that it is also important to recognise that what was considered safe in 2000 may not longer fit the bill as new technologies and the expectations of society call for state-of-the-art protection. Indeed, the European Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC has been expanded in the harmonised BS EN115-1 standard for new products and BS EN 115- 2, the rules governing the improvement of safety on existing moving walkways.

LEIA says it “fully supports” the introduction of the new standard to improve the safety of existing escalators and moving walkways, and it recommends that its members, as well as others responsible for such equipment, make an appropriate response to its advice.