Emergencies and reporting — IPAF MEWP Operator Practice

Sample questions

1. 01A rescue plan for a scissor lift job has to say who will bring the platform down if the operator cannot. Which description matches HSE’s GEIS6 sheet?

   • AWhoever happens to be nearest to the machine
   • BThe hire company’s driver who delivered it
   • CNominated, trained people based on site
   • DThe local fire and rescue service crew on call

   Why: GEIS6 says the plan should identify nominated, trained, site-based people who would be available to lower the platform with the ground controls or the emergency descent system. Whoever is nearest may never have been shown the machine, the delivery driver usually leaves once the machine is off-loaded, and the fire service is not the rescue plan.

2. 02A sole trader has a colleague at the base of a hired scissor lift and has shown them where the ground controls are. Besides having a rescue plan, what does HSE’s MEWP page say you should do?

   • APractise the rescue before it is needed
   • BKeep the platform below 4 m all day
   • CGet the colleague an operator card for it
   • DTell the fire service about the job first

   Why: HSE’s MEWP page says have a plan for rescuing someone from a MEWP and practise it, and that someone on the ground should know what to do in an emergency and how to operate the machine’s ground controls. Showing where the controls are is not practice. An operator card is the tempting answer, but HSE asks for knowledge of the emergency routine and the ground controls, not a card. The fire service is not the rescue plan, and WAHR sets no height below which rescue can be ignored.

3. 03Your rescue plan gives the operator a radio to call for help from a scissor lift in a noisy plant room. What does the LOLER guidance say about devices like this?

   • AThey should be inspected regularly by someone competent
   • BThey are allowed only on boom-type machines
   • CThey replace the need for a trained ground person
   • DThey must be supplied by the hire company with the machine

   Why: The LOLER guidance says a person trapped in a carrier should be able to summon help: a shout may do where others are nearby, but a phone or radio link or an alarm may be needed, and these devices should be regularly inspected by a competent person so they keep working. Thinking the radio replaces the trained ground person is the tempting error, because a radio only calls for help; someone trained still has to bring the platform down. Nothing limits them to booms or puts them on the hirer.