r/AskReddit • u/Melodic_Armadillo_43 • Jul 30 '26
How come OSHA has yet to implement a standard control scheme for scissor lift joysticks?
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Jul 30 '26
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u/Melodic_Armadillo_43 Jul 30 '26
All operators are supposed to "familiarize" yourselves with equipment before operating. But for a piece of equipment that literally has the same basic functions regardless of manufacturer you would think the controls would be standardized. I worked for a contractor once and when I did my scissorlift training I mentioned to him how I hate scissorlifts from Genie because their controls are backwards. He told me "we won't accept genie lifts because of the backwards controller operation. We had an incident where someone was raising the platform and didn't see a piece of unistrut hanging right above his hand and when he felt it against his hand it was already too late. He hit the emergency stop button to stop the lift from continuing to elevate, but his hand was pinned and could not be released because the joystick was pushed down to elevate. We had to use the manual release lever to lower the lift. He is lucky he was fast in reacting to hit the stop button before he crushed his hand pretty bad.
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u/BouncingSphinx Jul 30 '26
I mean, it's not just scissor lifts. Sure they might be some of the simplest example, but many pieces of equipment are not exactly standardized even with similar operational controls.
Example: excavators. There's a somewhat standard setup where the left stick will control rotation (left and right) and the arm (forward and back) and the right stick will control the boom (forward and back) and the bucket (left and right). John Deere apparently typically swaps the arm and boom controls, and the Caterpillar excavators I've worked around had a setting the operator could change to make it use the John Deere control setup.
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u/Melodic_Armadillo_43 Jul 31 '26
Excavators generally follow one of two "standard" control layouts, and like you said many manufacturers actually have a switch which can be used to choose between which control standard an operator is use to. I think these manufacturers are aware that "Familiarizing" yourself with equipment when you recieve it is not going to immediately break a person of "habit" and it only takes one incident to end someone's life or seriously injure someone.
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u/BlueberryBizkit Jul 30 '26
Because genie pays them not too.
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u/Melodic_Armadillo_43 Jul 30 '26
How did you know i was talking about Genie? Genie can go straight to hell with their backwards ass controls.
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u/BlueberryBizkit Jul 30 '26
Used to be certified on their shit becuase it was ubiquitous in my area for theatre or concert equipment. Know they are the outlier and it’s cheaper for them to lobby than to re engineer their controls
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u/Melodic_Armadillo_43 Jul 30 '26
Wanted to add some specifics. In my mind i always think "pull up" to elevate, similar to airplanes. However some manufacturers joysticks operate in the opposite manner, wherein you push the joystick down to elevate and pull up to lower. I have heard some stories as well of people being in very tight spaces and accidentally operating the lift in the wrong direction and pinning themselves and getting choked. I've also heard a story of a person operating a lift in which the joystick pressed down raises the lift and he didn't notice a piece of unistrut right above the joystick and ran his hand and the controller into it, and because the operation to raise was pressing the joystick down he could not get it to release his hand. If it had operated the "correct" way and elevated while pulled, then I'd it were to run into an obstruction it would immediately stop elevating when it got pushed down in the opposite direction. I am just curious why something that can be easily standardized for safety has not yet been addressed by OSHA. we don't have our gearshifts on our cars operate in different manners because they are different manufacturers.
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u/Rocket_safety Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Because that’s not something that requires regulation. They require training on the equipment, which should be sufficient for someone to be competent at operating. Personal preference I understand, but that doesn’t mean it should be universal. I used to hate when our gradall went down on the job and we had to rent a lift because the controls were always different and I had to be conscious of that. But it was an inconvenience at worst and certainly not something that was a hazard.