The latest figures from the International Powered Access Forum (IPAF) show that 28 people around the world, including two from the UK, died in the first six months of this year from accidents involving mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs). This compares with just 32 deaths for the whole of 2012.
So are these machines getting more dangerous? The IPAF believes that the accident reporting project is capturing more data, not necessarily that there are more accidents.
All manufacturers, rental companies, contractors and users are encouraged to report a fatal and serious accidents involving MEWPs at the IPAF accident database. The project is open to IPAF members and non-members, and includes an option for anonymous reporting.
“Findings from IPAF’s rental market reports lead us to estimate that there are more than one million MEWPs in the world,” said the Forum’s CEO Tim Whiteman. “Every fatality is one too many, but these figures show that powered access equipment remains a safe way to carry out temporary work at height.”
