Failure to Maintain Equipment
SWhile many accidents involving products are the result of a product defect that leads to injury of the product user, accidents can also be the result of a failure caused by lack of maintenance or inspection
Maintenance Theory
USLegal.com
defines failure to maintain premises as "a failure to keep a facility in
the
same general state
of being, repair, or efficiency as initially constructed", citing a
reference of Swieckowski by Swieckowski
v. City of
Failure to Maintain Premises
Failure to maintain premises can result in many different
types of accidents. These accidents
include slip and fall accidents, stairway accidents, elevator accidents,
overhead door accidents, collapse of structures, chairs, ladders, and many
other types of accidents. Slip and fall
accidents are often blamed on floor surfaces with low coefficients of friction. Stairways that are not designed with the
correct height and depth, or that have varying dimensions from step to step,
can result in accidents. Even though
this is usually not a failure to maintain, establishing that a stairway is
defective may be the grounds for a premises liability suit. The design of most overhead doors requires
maintenance to ensure safe functioning.
Light sensors, contact sensors, and door cables all require inspection,
and repair or replacement if they are faulty.
Collapsing chairs result in many accidents every year. Due to their frequent use and abuse, as well
as their utility and longevity, chairs can collapse due to a failure to
maintain. These chair failures are often
due to connection failures. Legs or
other supporting members of the chair can collapse if the connection
fails. Failure can occur when bolts come
loose and fall out, screws come out of wood, welds break, structural components
fail, or if the chair is used in a manner inconsistent with its design.
On construction sites, there are numerous hazards that
can result in accidents if safeguards are not kept in place. Railings and fall protection must be kept in
good working order and in compliance with standards. Elevators must have proper guarding. Forklifts and other construction vehicles
must have working seat belts and roll over protection. Power tools must be kept in safe working
order, including ensuring all guards are intact and fully functional.
Failure to Maintain Vehicles
Failure to maintain vehicles is used in cases involving commercial
vehicles. When tractor-trailers lose
control and impact a vehicle, there is often serious injury or loss of life due
to the size and weight of the tractor-trailer.
It is important to determine if any failure to maintain resulted in the
loss of control that led to an accident.
If brakes are not properly maintained, a tractor-trailer's stopping
distance can be greatly increased. Worn
tires can result in instability and loss of control. Mechanical defects can lead to broken wheel
components. An inspection by a competent
professional can reveal if there was a vehicle condition that may have led to
the accident, and whether this condition could have been prevented with proper
maintenance.
Failure to Maintain Machine Safeguards
When we investigate industrial accidents, we often find
that the machine did not have the necessary safeguards to meet industry
standards, and prevent inadvertent contact with hazardous machinery. Industrial machinery has a long lifespan, and
often changes ownership multiple times.
Our investigation process involves determining what the original state
of the machinery was at the time of manufacture. This can be determined by identifying product
literature, photographs, or by looking for signs of previously removed guards,
such as unused bolt holes or brackets.
If evidence shows that the machine was supplied with guards that were
later removed, the machine owner/employer may be responsible for damages or
injuries caused by the machinery. In
these cases it is critical to determine if any changes were made to the
equipment that may have involved removal of the guards. Guards can be damaged by forklifts, other
machinery, or due to machine malfunction.
This damage may interfere with machine operation, or interfere with the
machine operators. If not repaired, this
can lead to removal of the guards. It is
critical to keep the guards in their original state. Safety interlocks can also fail due to abuse
or damage.
Intentional Bypassing of Safety
Controls
Safety controls
can be intentionally bypassed to increase productivity, or to make the machine
operator's job easier. We see interlocks
that get bypassed in high production volume facilities where quantity of
product is emphasized over worker safety.
Maintenance personnel may have to bypass interlocks in order to diagnose
a machine malfunction. These interlocks
are not always returned to their original state. If designed correctly, the safety interlock
is enclosed or coded to make tampering difficult or impossible. Many machines still use simple unprotected
limit switches for safety interlocks. These can be easily bypassed. In these scenarios, it is imperative to
determine exactly who removed the interlocks, when the interlocks were bypassed,
and whether this was ordered by anyone.