SAFETYBIZ,
INC.
Safety Engineering Services
Jay W. Preston, CSP, PE, CMIOSH, President and CEO
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Safety Engineering Services Jay W. Preston, CSP, PE, CMIOSH, President and CEO
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Jay W. Preston, CEO
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ELEVATOR AND ESCALATOR SAFETY:
On the lighter side: Elevator cases have their ups and downs.
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aol.com
Relevant experience dates to on-the-job training with Liberty Mutual in
the hazards of elevators and escalators in 1969. During my employment with the insurance
industry, I was required to evaluate for safety a large number of escalator and elevator
installations. My assignments were looked at from the standpoint of an insurer of
operators, installers and manufacturers of elevators and escalators. I have had several
elevator and escalator cases go to jury trial since my private practice began. I
have solid, working familiarity with the ANSI-ASME Elevator Code and other codes and
standards that relate to escalator and elevator hazards as well as familiarity with the
characteristic types of accidents by type and brand of equipment. I can
assist in preventing elevator and escalator accidents by training personnel and
guiding the implementation of programs and techniques. 
Work experience also makes me able to address the safety
measures being employed by the operator regarding warnings, training of personnel, and
other elements of an elevator and escalator accident prevention program.
This includes the
retrofitting with additional safety devices that may prevent specific types of accidents
as well as the routine rotating out of wearing or deteriorating parts as an element of
preventive maintenance. Escalator cases have involved combplate entrapments, unexpected stops, skirt entrapments,
handrail return entrapments, and landing mis-steps.
Most of my elevator cases have involved
falls from misleveling, but some have involved door hardware impacts, interlock
malfunctions, and evacuation during emergencies. Some have involved
failures to properly guard hoistway openings during construction and
maintenance.
I am also familiar with manlifts (vertical
belt conveyors for personnel movement). These are largely being phased out of new
construction, but there are still many in use in feed and batch plants, large industrial
plants, powerplants, and parking towers. They have been outlawed in the City of Los
Angeles (although their accident record is not significantly worse than alternatives.
The L.A. City Elevator Code has now been politically drafted to exclude those
places where manlifts are likely to be installed). The things LOOK dangerous, and
are absolutely hair-raising for neophytes to ride.
aol.com. The J-P, Plus Design
and SAFETYBIZ. are registered service marks of Jay
William Preston.
Permission for use of specific Safety Subject
Information is only granted when this notice is
printed in full and Preston has been contacted by phone, fax, or email prior to
use.