If you have been in the power sweeping industry for a while you are painfully aware that it has been plagued with lawsuits. Some feel this pain more than others. Or perhaps you haven’t yet felt the pain of a juicy lawsuit. No worries, veteran sweepers will tell you it’s only a matter of time!
Well, the North American Power Sweeping Association has got your back. NAPSA has addressed these pain points with a couple great tools starting with the development of the first-ever power sweeping standard, available at www.PowerSweeping.org.
What does this mean and what does it have that is important? The answer is found in a quote from Alice in Wonderland: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road can take you there.” Likely true, but along the way you’ll run into a plaintiff’s attorney who will be sitting there like the Cheshire Cat waiting to pounce. Why? Because failing to follow an industry standard can be construed as a failed duty by the defendant.
According to attorney Forest Merithew, “In tort law, a duty of care is a legal obligation which is imposed requiring adherence to a standard of reasonable care while performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others. The breach of such a duty is the first element a plaintiff must establish to proceed with an action in negligence. The breach of a duty could subject the defendant, whether an individual or business, to liability and damages.” So, without a power sweeping standard, the plaintiff’s attorney can make wildly outrageous claims as to the breach of a duty and the defendant has zero defense. That the industry now has a standard prevents this.
So, what’s next? Well, what you do if you had a new sweeper truck and had never had one before? The logical answer is that you would seek training on how to use this new tool. So NAPSA is in the final stages of developing training to help members understand this new power sweeping standard tool. The important part of this is that WHEN you go into court (notice we didn’t say IF), NAPSA organizations trained on the power sweeping standard can say that they have been professionally trained to the duty in the power sweeping standard.
