Findings from the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) reveal that 28 fatalities worldwide involving mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs), also known as aerial work platforms (AWPs), were reported in the first half of 2013.

Compared with the first half of 2012, which saw 17 reported fatalities, the number of fatalities reported for the first half of 2013 has increased by about 65 percent. IPAF believes that the accident reporting project is capturing more data, not necessarily that there are more accidents.

The main causes of these fatalities were: overturn (10), fall from height (9), entrapment (5), electrocution (3), and impact with MEWP (1). Thirteen of the fatalities involved booms, 10 involved scissor lifts, and three involved vehicle mounts. In two cases, the machine type was unknown.

Thirteen of these fatalities occurred in the U.S., two each in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, and one each in Armenia, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, Norway, Spain, and the UAE.

While the main causes of fatalities were evenly spread in the first half of 2012, the first half of 2013 saw a rise in the number of fatalities resulting from overturn and fall from height, and an increase in those that involved booms and scissor lifts.

More details about these findings can be found at the IPAF website.