I was recently working on a wheel chair lift by porch lift, it was a roped hydraulic unit, one i have worked on many times. I was having a problem in the safety circuit but couldn't identify which switch was causing the problem through the terminal strip connections alone. I decided to bring the lift to the top, lock out the main line and use a meter to check continuity between suspected switches. While I was checking the continuity between a particular circuit, I had my arm up the side of the car trying to get a reading on a particular circuit, It was a tight fit, so I leaned back to acccomodate a better positon, only to press my back on the emergency lowering cable, the car started to come down and luckily i was able to pull my arm out and move my body away from the emergency lower cable. I thank God that this was the way things came about, because if didn't pull my arm out and move forward, away from the cable i surely would have been severly injured. As it turned out my arm was bruised and scraped badly from barely missing a severe accident.
Just thought I would pass this along, I know from experience that we all seem to get lax on safety especially when working on something as trivial as a wheel chair lift, remember any moving piece of equipment no matter how small or trivial we may think it is, is always a source of danger for those of us who repair them. always think safety first , it may be your last thought