Plant&Equipment

Special report
As stated recently
by the Health and
Safety Executive
(HSE), more
than one million
people suffer
from work-related
musculoskeletal
disorders (MSDs)
and there is an 80
percent chance
that at some point
in your life you
will develop low
back pain.
Mr Gary Dale, Specialist Plant Supplies Ltd
With the average sufferer taking 17
days off sick each year with MSDs
this equates to around 10 million
working days lost to UK industry
at an estimated value of £600m.
These simple statistics reveal that
manual handling is not an issue
that should be taken lightly –
pardon the pun!
One solution to reducing the
manual handling risks from
lifting heavy products, such as
kerb stones and paving slabs, is
the Kerb Caddy Easylifter. This
versatile piece of equipment was
the brainchild of Mr Patrick J
Walsh (known to his friends as
‘PJ’) who designed and developed
the equipment over a five year
period. Legend has it that Patrick
was so fed up with hurting his own
back that he decided that he and
fellow workers in industry deserved
something better and so the
Kerb Caddy Easylifter was born.
Patrick has a wealth of experience
within the construction and civil
engineering industries and had
been employed as a kerb layer for
over 30 years – so who better to
design such equipment?
Essentially, the Kerb Caddy
Easylifter allows one man to lift,
carry and position kerbs or slabs
up to a safe working load of 70kg.
This is achieved by the use of
scissor grips which are attached
to a two wheel carriage and are
fully adjustable both by height and
width; the height of the lift can be
24
February 2008