Notre Dame junior Declan Sullivan, 20, died working as a videographer recording football practice, when the hydraulic scissorlift — he was in while it was extended — tipped in high winds at the LaBar Practice Complex on the south side of Notre Dame campus. The accident occurred at about 4:50 p.m. EDT.
Declan Sullivan, of Long Grove, Illinois, was transported to Memorial Hospital in South Bend where he was pronounced dead. Declan Sullivan was a graduate of Carmel High School in Mundelein.
His rector, Fr. Robert Moss, presided over a standing-room-only Mass for Sullivan Wednesday night at 10:30 p.m. About 200 people attended an immediate service in St. Paul Chapel in Fisher Residence Hall, where Declan Sullivan lived.
The model and manufacturer of the scissor lift (aerial platform) was not available at the time of this post, but an operating manual for JLG lifts — including models with maximum platform heights of 18.75 feet to 32 feet — lists a Maximum Wind Speed for all of those models of 28 mph. Wind speed at 3:54 PM in South Bend, Indiana was posted at 33.4 MPH and gust speed of 50.6 MPH. The conditions posted at that hour were the highest wind speeds among the hourly reports for the day (Weather History: South Bend, IN October 27, 2010)
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SOURCE: JLG Operation and Safety Manual Models 1930ES/2030ES/2630ES/2646ES/3264ES — P/N – 3121165 — April 11, 2007