College student dies in scissor lift accident

[derekleffew]

Notre Dame starts aerial lift safety program - chicagotribune.com

Up Right : Home

 

[derekleffew]

Hmmm. So there isn't a civil suit?

Declan Sullivan's father does not blame Notre Dame - chicagotribune.com

 

[gafftaper]

That article is AMAZING.

"We never really felt a reason to pursue any kind of legal action. Why would you do that? ... We didn't want to take resources and energy away from other positive things that might happen by tying up people with lawsuits and other actions."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/economy-business-finance/forbes.com-llc-ORCRP00607117145.topic

Forbes.com last year estimated it could cost the university $30 million if Sullivan's parents sued. The mere suggestion seemed unfair to Declan's father.

The family — whose ties to the campus and its sister school, St. Mary's College, go back several decades — witnessed how much his death distressed the Notre Dame community and had no desire to compound that grief with a lawsuit or public criticism, Barry Sullivan said.

"We saw people that were obviously suffering," he said. "They felt a great sense of responsibility for what happened. How could we add to their pain with displays of anger or anything like that?"

AMAZING! These people are more concerned about the image of the school and the football program than the loss of their son's life. That's nuts.

 

[Nelson]

Yes, but in a world where everyone is ready to sue at the drop of a hat, I think it is refreshing to read where the family isn't going to sue in this case. Hopefully the school learned their lesson and will prevent accidents like this in the future. That's all I can ask for!

 

[mstaylor]

I agree with the family in that suing is not in their nature, I disagree with suing in many cases. However, in this case there was an utter disregard for safety and common sense. As far as wind speed, I teach guys anything over twenty MPH, get on the ground. You can push it with a man lift but not by a lot. The coach says he hasn't considered playing the blame game because he would be in the middle of that circle.
The problem in most cases of people suing is they would sue the school, coach, lift company and anybody else they could think of. I can see the school, coach and if there was a safety company under contract, them. The lift company has no business there because it didn't fail, it was used improperly.

 

[gafftaper]

I agree with the family in that suing is not in their nature, I disagree with suing in many cases. However, in this case there was an utter disregard for safety and common sense. As far as wind speed, I teach guys anything over twenty MPH, get on the ground. You can push it with a man lift but not by a lot. The coach says he hasn't considered playing the blame game because he would be in the middle of that circle.
The problem in most cases of people suing is they would sue the school, coach, lift company and anybody else they could think of. I can see the school, coach and if there was a safety company under contract, them. The lift company has no business there because it didn't fail, it was used improperly.

I'm right there with you Michael. I'm not a law suit sort of person... in fact I have recently chosen no to sue a former employer. However this is a situation where a lawsuit is clearly justified. A system with either complete stupidity or complete disregard for this youngman's safety sent him up in that lift. Either way there was a complete breakdown in safety protocols and someone should be penalized so that the University gets the message that safety is THAT important. $40,000 is not enough of a penalty to get the attention of anyone at the University. Unless this becomes a top priority and serious changes are made to campus policy, this will fade from memory, the casual attitude will return, and the possibility of this happening again will slowly return.

 

[derekleffew]

So I'm going to need several spot ops over the next few weeks...

No pay, but great experience. Any volunteers?

 

[gafftaper]

I'm eagerly waiting a comment from our friend who works for the rat.

 

[mstaylor]

So the guy on the right has clue, the guy on the left, not so much. Why the devil would he extend the basket, then put all the weight off center?

 

[jxgriffi]

So the guy on the right has clue, the guy on the left, not so much. Why the devil would he extend the basket, then put all the weight off center?

Because there's only so much room around the Hub and he needed to make the shot that the DP wanted.

 

[derekleffew]

So the guy on the right has clue, the guy on the left, not so much. ...

I found a picture on the 'net that I can't post [and have now lost] due to the recognizable logo(s) in the picture. But it shows four Supers and five operators in one lift. I looked up the specs, and the lamps alone exceed the weight capacity! Add in five guys at 175-250 lbs/ea (like most house spot ops, they weren't petite gentlemen) and ... How did the lift even raise? Jumping up and down in unison ?

 

[mstaylor]

I found a picture on the 'net that I can't post [and have now lost] due to the recognizable logo(s) in the picture. But it shows four Supers and five operators in one lift. I looked up the specs, and the lamps alone exceed the weight capacity! Add in five guys at 175-250 lbs/ea (like most house spot ops, they weren't petite gentlemen) and ... How did the lift even raise? Jumping up and down in unison ?

Years ago when I was way younger and dumber, I did truss spot on a very well known national act. He had a 40x40 box grid ground supported on Genies and four rear truss spots. It was the shakiest thing I had ever been on and once I knew the ratings of the Genies it as scary.

 

[avkid]

A 40x40 on SuperTowers?
No thank you!

 

[mstaylor]

That was my thought after I got up there. I was young enough that I wasn't aware of the Genie rating. It was double hung and four truss spots on basically two lifts. You figure we had 800 lbs in spot ops plus everything else.