Date of incident: March 2022
Notice of incident number: 2022194970012
Employer: Copier sales, service, and rentals company

Incident summary
Two workers were moving a large office printer strapped to a stair climber (a motorized dolly) down a flight of stairs. The worker on the high side lost control of the load at the top of the staircase, and the stair climber tipped forward. The worker travelled overtop of the printer and stair climber, coming to rest on a landing midway down the staircase. The printer and the stair climber followed down the stairs and struck the worker. The worker sustained fatal injuries.

Investigation conclusions

Cause

• Stair climber was overloaded and fell down stairs. The stair climber, which was being used to transport the printer down a flight of stairs, was overloaded. According to the stair climber’s load charts, the maximum load limit of the stair climber in this situation was between 113 and 136 kg (250 and 300 lb.). The printer weighed about 165.5 kg (365 lb.), so the stair climber was overloaded by 29.5 to 52.5 kg (65 to 115 lb.). This resulted in the worker not being able to safely manipulate the load and the stair climber tipping forward.

Contributing factors

• No hazard identification or risk assessment. The employer had no documented hazard identification or risk assessment for the work being done. The employer failed to assess the risk pertaining to the weight of the printer when using the stair climber.
• No young and new worker training. The worker was a young and new worker, but he had not been trained and had not used the stair climber prior to the incident.
• No safe work procedures. The employer did not have any safe work procedures for the installation and removal of copiers and printers or for operating the stair climber.
• Inadequate supervision. The employer did not have any workers who were trained to supervise other workers. A supervisor should have identified that workers needed training on the stair climber before using it.

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