Hand crush injury on a wind turbine service lift, landing gate guarding and external control positioning

In May 2024 the UK health and safety regulator issued an industry safety bulletin (reference ED01-2024) following an incident in which a wind turbine service technician suffered serious hand injuries during maintenance work. Service lifts inside turbine towers are used routinely to move personnel and equipment between the tower base and the nacelle. According to the bulletin, the technician was able to place a hand into an aperture in the lift structure while sending the lift down using external controls of a one touch to operate type. The controls were positioned on moving parts of the lift, and the design of the landing gates and associated guarding did not prevent access to the moving lift car. The lift car crushed the hand against the gate. The regulator responded by issuing a bulletin to duty holders across the wind sector, onshore and offshore, directing them to check the design of gates, guarding and external control positions on service lifts in use.

The safety bulletin identified the underlying issue as an absence of defined industry standards for the safe design of service lifts within wind turbines, which had resulted in discrepancies in the application of safeguards by designers and manufacturers. The bulletin stated that: (1) the design of base and upper level landing gates and associated guarding did not prevent access to the moving lift car; (2) the positioning of one touch to operate external controls on moving parts of the lift created a foreseeable situation in which a person could reach into a hazardous area while operating the lift; (3) there was no interlock or other safeguard preventing contact between the moving structure and the operator at that position. The bulletin noted that a standard for lifting appliances in wind turbines, BS EN 81-44, was in preparation at the time and was intended to set the benchmark for the safe design of such lifts.

Lessons drawn from the safety bulletin:

1. duty holders operating wind turbines, and employers of those who maintain them, should check the design of landing gates, associated guarding and the position of external controls on every service lift in use, this being the specific action set out in the bulletin;
2. where guarding or control positioning is found to be inadequate, controls should be repositioned or additional guarding fitted before further use, with interim control measures applied until the change is complete;
3. where a class of equipment has no dedicated design standard, procurement and design assurance should not assume consistent safeguarding between manufacturers, and each unit should be assessed on its own arrangements;
4. BS EN 81-44 should be used as the design benchmark once published, including when assessing assets installed before it;
5. service lifts in wind turbines fall within the duty under Regulation 11
6. of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery, and inspection regimes should reflect that;
7. controls of a one touch type sited close to or on moving parts are a recurring design pattern that allows a person to operate the equipment while within reach of the hazard, and designers and purchasers should check for this pattern wherever personnel work near moving lift structures;
8. regulator safety bulletins should be tracked systematically and each one treated as a prompt to inspect the operator's own asset base rather than as awareness of an event elsewhere.

BS EN 81-44

hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/service-lifts-in-offshore-onshore-turbin...