Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard: LIFTING

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to hazards of being crushed by falling objects: (a) At this establishment located at 1530 N. Military Trail, West Palm Beach, the following was found: 1 . On or about 2/27/97, the employer presumed training on automotive lifts was a part of employee experience. Upon interviewing employees it was found that the employer had given no training to employees regarding the lifts in use at this site, employees presumed lift load capacities without checking vehicle weight and checking the load capacity of the lift, employees learned from experience about the lift points of particular vehicles. 2. On or about 2/27/97, the employer had no policy or practice to take defective lifts out of service until maintenance could be performed. It was found that if the lift could be used to lift automobiles then it would be continued to be used with the defect. 3. On or about 2/27/97, the employer had no policy or practice in place for periodic maintenance of automotive lifts. The past practice had been if a lift was reported defective or if an incident involving the malfunctioning of a lift had occurred then the service repair company would be called to perform the necessary corrective service, there was no scheduled preventive maintenance checks performed by qualified lift service technicians. 4. On or about 2/27/97, the employer had no policy or practice in place where employees were trained about how to properly inspect lifts prior to use. 5. On or about 2/27/97, the employer had no policy or practice in place for the retraining of employees when incidents occurred which would warrant same. When an incident occurred in January 1997, the employer gave out copies of "Lifting it Right", a safety manual published by the Automotive Lift Institute, but did not go over the information and material with employees. Upon inspection wooden blocks were found in the shop that had been used to block open the closing valve so that the employee would not have to stand and manually operate the release lever. Among other methods, one feasible method of correction would be to follow and maintain the system in accordance with ANSI/ALI B 153.1 also known as the ALOIM-1994 standard.4