Videographer's Death Calls Scissor Lift Safety Into Question

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By all accounts, Declan Sullivan loved his job as a student videographer for the University of Notre Dame football program. But he also recognized the risks. Before going to work Oct. 27, a day that saw extreme high winds whip through South Bend, the 20-year-old tweeted, "I guess I've lived long enough." Once aloft in a 50-foot scissor lift, with wind gusts exceeding 50 miles per hour, genuine panic ensued. "This is terrifying," Sullivan typed.

Less than an hour later, the lift blew over into a street bordering the practice field, killing Sullivan and shaking the collegiate sports video community to its very foundation. The next day, University of Nebraska video director Mike Nobler gathered together his student staffers, who upon reading the news felt nervous about returning to work. "There's no way I'm going up in a lift again," Nobler says, relaying a common initial student reaction. However, Nobler successfully reaffirmed Nebraska's unwritten policy that puts control of scissor lifts at the student operator's discretion. "If they're up there and they're terrified, they just come down halfway," Nobler says. "They all feel really comfortable with it."

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