[Racer26]

In FIRST, safety has always been #1, and its imperitive that teams take it seriously. As several others have mentioned, and linked to in this thread, accidents DO happen, and CAN cause serious injury. For the 2008 season, 1075 built a robotic forklift cart, driven by an IFI system from 2004. When we built it, we knew for sure that the safety advisors would be all over us about it, since driving a vehicle through the crowded pits has the potential to be quite dangerous, never mind that the vehicle itself has its own concerns. It was built with a very long list of safety features designed to prevent accidental operation, as well as to reduce possibility of serious injury as a result of its use. It was also built to reduce RSI's in our own team members, associated with lifting the robot, and working on it at the wrong height.

Its features are as follows:

on the old white joysticks:
trigger: enables the lift to be operated with aux1 and aux2
trigger + thumb button: enables the X and Y axes of the joystick to drive the cart

other lockouts:

seat is spring loaded, with a switch to prevent operation of the cart without a driver IN the drivers seat

front bumper on the end of the deck has a switch in it as well to stop the cart from continuing to drive into something (people, walls, whatever)

the lift has holes crossdrilled in the legs for safety pins, to ensure the deck doesnt fall.

the motor driving the deck up and down has a shroud over the chain, to protect any stray fingers, etc

it has a rotating light off our 2003 robot, to warn the area of its presence and ability to move unexpectedly.

for 2009 I believe we are planning to add an automotive horn, for an audible warning.

AND, its ALWAYS operated with a crew of flagpeople to clear the path and raise awareness to its presence.

As for benefits it provides to us, it was designed to be able to reach over the edge of the field, however, none of the events we've taken it to so far have allowed us to do so. This was to reduce back strain associated with lifting it on and off the field.

It allows us to raise up the robot to a proper height to work on in the pits without back strain and similar issues.

It also has a number of features to aid in testing and debugging the robot at competition.

This is the kind of attention to detail required in FIRST when it comes to safety. I hate to use my own team as an example, because it sounds like i'm bragging or gloating, but when there's a high risk for danger (ie. props breaking up at thousands of rpm, with the potential for sending shrapnel flying at high velocity), safety should be paramount.