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Automotive
Lifts pose a serious danger in your shop when they are
in need of repair or maintenance. Lifts are heavy
equipment. A vehicle can easily fall and crush
your service technician or customer with only a split
second's notice. Indeed, every year over 15,000
accidents causing hospitalization or death come from
lift related accidents (and this doesn't count the
countless accidents that are handled without involving a
hospital or the insurance companies). In fact, during
this last year, we have been called out to service and
inspect many failed lifts that either caused damage or
were about to. This is a lot more common than you
would imagine. Sometimes it doesn't end with just
damaging the vehicle, sometimes it ends with death.
A lift inspection is very inexpensive and becomes a
miniscule cost when compared to a disaster caused by an
accident.
For example:
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A 30
Year-old man sustains life-threatening injuries when a
lift with a Ford Escort collapses.
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A 19
Year-old man has his fingers amputated when the vehicle
on the lift he was operating tipped while he was
adjusting the kick out device.
·
A 28
Year-old man died when the lift he was operating failed
and the vehicle fell and crushed him.
Here is a small sampling of the accidents listed on this
OSHA claims web site:
http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/AccidentSearch.search?acc_keyword="Auto%20Lift"&keyword_list=on
Lifts fail and cause accidents all the time, and the
causes of failure vary. Some lifts fail because of
improper installation, improper use by the operator,
poor maintenance (yes, lifts require maintenance), and
even sometimes poor manufacturing. To keep your
shop safer, it becomes imperative to conduct regular
safety inspections and maintenance.
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Craig Heidenthal, Lift Safety
Inspector
and Owner of Service Tech
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That's what our Lift Safety Inspector, Craig
Heidenthal, does for shops like yours. Craig has
over 30 years of automotive service equipment experience
and has owned Service Tech for over 20 years. In
that time, he has conducted 100's (maybe over 1000) of
safety inspections on vehicle lifts. This
experience makes him a true expert in the field.
Craig conducts safety inspections on lifts for very
large companies with their own fleets as well as many
municipal auto service shops. Craig is also called
upon to regularly inspect the vehicle lifts of an
underground goldmine in Nevada.
Avoid the disaster that could cost your company
$1000's or $1,000,000's. Invest in a simple safety
inspection at least annually to get the peace of mind
you deserve from knowing your lifts are safer for use.
Another important point to mention relates to
employee training. Every lift is different, and
often your lift operators are not trained well enough to
operate the lifts safely. This is a common issue
that causes accidents regularly. Service Tech
provides operator training to ensure you are keeping
your staff safer while operating this heavy equipment.
Training can be scheduled as a group, saving you money.
This training can be performed at the same time as the
inspection too, which saves you more money.
Call us today to
schedule your Lift Safety Inspection!
(800) 446-2254
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