Safe Habits for Wheelchair Lifts

Safe Habits for Wheelchair Lifts

Safe Habits for Wheelchair Lifts

Wheelchair lifts are essential in helping individuals with mobility impairments meet their many transportation needs. It is important to understand that several potential hazards can exist when operating this type of complex equipment. Avoiding injury and preventing possible damage can be accomplished by considering these potential hazards, and practicing safe habits whenever operating wheelchair lifts.

In the operation of a wheelchair lift, securing the vehicle is one of the first steps to ensuring safety. It is vital that the vehicle is in park and that the parking brake is applied. The parking break should be inspected regularly to ensure that it is working properly, also. Failure to follow this important step could result in the vehicle moving and causing injury or damage.

The vehicle should be parked on level ground before deploying wheelchair lifts. Especially in the use of platform lifts, this can prevent the mobility device from rolling needlessly on the lift. Roll stop devices should also be employed to prevent the potential for a mobility device to roll off of the lift. This type of occurrence could cause serious injury if it happened while the individual was on the mobility device. It could also cause catastrophic damage to a wheelchair or mobility scooter.

All wheelchair lifts have weight restrictions. Swivel lifts are typically designed for lighter mobility devices and the larger platform lifts are able to lift more excessive weights. If the weight limit of the lift is exceeded, there could be damaged caused to the lift and the potential dumping of the mobility device. Obviously, this too could be catastrophic.

Many wheelchair lifts require a certain amount of space in order to deploy properly. Special care should be taken during operation. Ample space should be available to prevent the device from impacting other vehicles, and more importantly, nearby people. Most handicap parking spaces provide enough space to properly deploy the device.

Many governmental regulations require that a backup system be available in the event of equipment failure. Ensuring that wheelchair lifts have a backup system or manual operations capability can provide another option for safe usage in the event of a malfunction.

These safety habits can go a long ways in protecting the operator, user, and any nearby people. It can also prevent needless damage to the wheelchair lift and any nearby vehicles or other types of property. Learning and maintaining safe operating conditions is necessary to properly use wheelchair lifts, and to maximize the assistance provided by these great mobility enhancing devices.

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