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Posted By Kevin Irwin
I wonder if anyone can help. We have recently had an incident where an employee, who is profoundly deaf, became trapped in one of the office lifts. The lift is equipped with an emergency phone but the employee was unable to communicate other than by pressing the emergency button. The employee was rescued in a short time but he was extremely distressed because he wasn't aware that anyone else knew of his dilemma. I need to put a system in place to prevent a reoccurrence of his distress. Has anyone had a similar problem? Does anyone have any solution (other than barring him from using the lift)?
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Posted By Chris Uren
This is a tough one for you. Whatever you do please do not use the barring option.
Risk assess how many times people have been trapped in lifts on your premises and how many people / staff who have problems with a disability that could be affected. You could go to extreme lenghts to solve a problem that is a low risk and has very low likelehood of reoccurance.
The person trapped would be very distressed, but I am sure is now comforted by the fact that they were rescued quickly showing that the existing system worked well.
Ask for there opinion of the person affected and others who might be affected. They may solve the problem for you.
Chris at Effective Safety
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Posted By anthony o'keefe
regarding your dilemma, it would not be appropriate to bar him from using the lift, note the disability discrimination act.
though in a previous life i was asked to assist an aquaintance with a similar matter. if there is a phone that means there is power all that is needed is an illuminated sign with the message "help on way" or other that can be activated by the person that would normally be on the other end of the phone.
i hope that this is clear and helps.
regards
tony
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Posted By Kevin Irwin
Thanks for the responses. One thing I omitted from the original message was that the emergency phone/button is to a remote location and a response can take 30 minutes or more.
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Posted By Jim Walker
Reminds me of something that happened to me a few years ago. I was on holiday in Whitby and had a bad stomach. I visited an old Victorian toilet block on the seafront. Whilst I was in there, the toilet attendant (evidently!) shouted "is there anyone in there, 'cos I'm locking up". Being profoundly deaf, I did not hear him. He locked the block up and went home.
My wife and sons still rib me merciless about it.
I suppose I could have sued the council for trauma and false imprisonment.
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