Monday, April 18, 2011

Notre Dame Releases Info from Sullivan Investigation

((HT: WSBT-TV South Bend))

Here's the university press release...

Here are the recommendations from the investigation...

Here's the full report...

The University of Notre Dame held an internal investigation into the events that led to the death of student videographer Declan Sullivan last football season...

The short version yields four problems:

"A sudden and extraordinary" 53 mph burst of wind.

Staff members' lack of knowledge about on-the-field wind speeds.

The lift that fell, a Marklift MT40G, is structurally different than two other lifts used that day and more susceptible to tipping.

The height of the lift -- fully extended to 40 feet -- at the time of the accident.

In more detail- among some of the issues: The videography staff and student videographers weren't identified as "aerial lift employee-operators" by the campus Department of Risk Management and therefore never received required training, and the scissor lift didn't receive mandatory inspections in August of 2010 since it wasn't schedlued by the head of the videography department...

In March, the Indiana version of OSHA ordered the university to pay $77,500 in fines for safety violations related to Sullivan's death.

WSBT-TV's Colleen Ferreira looks at the IOSHA interviews that led to the fine...
 

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