Modern Building Services

18 MODERN BUILDING SERVICES DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 FEATURE WORKING BUILDINGS Eur Ing Dave Cooper, CEO of LECS (UK) an independent engineering consultancy for lifts and escalators, looks at one key aspect of lift safety - using a release key. • BS7255 Safe working on lifts • BS7801 Safe working on escalators & moving walks • BS9102 Safe working on lifting platforms I can write all day long about the contents of these standards but I am going to concentrate on a subject matter that seems to be in the public gaze at the moment. This is information that lift owners and managers need to hear or be reminded of. The release key and access to it This is very much about safety. In fact, there have been a number of accidents recently where people have fallen down lift shafts as a result of using a release key. It leads us neatly into a discussion about the duty of care! Over the years there have been many articles about the risks associated with release keys and, in particular, the ease with which they can be obtained from DIY stores albeit for different purposes. The question about access to a release key came to the fore recently in a trial involving a care home in North Wales in 2018 where an untrained member of staff used a release key and subsequently fell down a lift shaft and sustained serious injuries. The victim had been alerted to a fault in the lift. She opened the lift door using an emergency key but fell down the shaft. This accident happened just three days after she had started her new job. The care home company denied breaching standards but was found guilty of breaching four health and safety standards at a trial at Mold Crown Court. It was fined £90,000 and ordered to pay costs of £85,000. The enforcing authority said that the manager suffered life- changing injuries and was lucky to have survived. The judge said that the systems that had been in place at the care home were “inadequate”. After the hearing, Flintshire Council’s cabinet member for planning and public protection, Councillor Christopher Bithell, said: “This is a tragic case where an employee was very seriously injured and could have died as a result of their employer’s negligence. “This prosecution sends a clear message about how seriously Flintshire County Council takes these matters.” The question for the industry is how dowe stop it happening again? The reality is that if someone is intent on using a release key, we can’t stop them. However, there are a number of steps that we should take when something obvious jumps out at us as being wrong including ensuring that authorised persons are adequately trained and also that access to release keys is, as far as possible, limited to those authorised persons. One of the comparators used in this case was the fact that the trolley used for dispensing drugs to patients was kept locked to prevent unauthorised access. Similarly, BS7255 requires that a release key is kept in a safe place. Who should be trained to use a release key? The thought of getting stuck in a lift is one that most people dread. Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service acknowledged on its website that during one 12-month period it attended 550 incidents where people were stuck inside defective lifts. The fire service also acknowledged that a lift maintenance contractor may be better skilled than they to release passengers and that they may cause damage to the lift during the process. The key safety issue for lift release G etting stuck in a lift is something that most people dread. It’s what happens next – i.e. who is tasked with releasing the trapped passenger - that has become the subject of an ongoing debate. BS7255 is a standard entitled ‘Safe Working on Lifts’. The prevailing standard is the 2012 version however it is currently being updated by the committee responsible for its publication. BS7255 is a very important standard for any lift owner or manager as it is divided into separate sections – somefor lift owners and otherss for those that actually work on the lift. I am often surprised by people telling me they have never heard of the standard. In fact, there are a series of them that people should be aware of: