In recent months some photographs taken by a member of the public of a mobile crane falling into a harbour in a botched attempt to lift a car out of the water has been doing the rounds on website forums.
If it were not such a serious incident where someone could have easily been killed, then the series of images would have been comical. The crane, the sort which is on the back of a vehicle with outriggers, was obviously too small for the job. As it begun to lift the car from the habour you can see it begin to tilt and then fall into the habour landing atop of the vehicle it had tried to save.
It may be hard not to look at this accident and say a comment like - the workers on the mobile crane are just really stupid - they should have been more cautious and they are to blame - surely? Actually, in fact, as most enquiries of industrial equipment and plant incidents show, the likelihood is that they have been set up to fail. Yep, workers all have their own accountabilities but with the wrong equipment, training and safe system of work they do not have a chance.
Take as a case in point Leslie Brown, a 43 year old father from Haile in Cumbria who was killed in an accident at work in April 2010. Leslie was helping to unload a vehicle from a low loader trailer when the ramp failed, fell and killed him. The subsequent police and Health & Safety Executive investigation found that there had been previous problems with the ramp. However, at the inquest, the director of the company involved and the transport manager told the inquest that they had not been told of the earlier problem. The transport manager said:
"If there had been a report I would have seen it, but there wasn't a report"
The transport manager also said:
"We didn't have a risk assessment for that particular trailer, but we did have general assessments."
The transport manager, when questioned added that the manufacturer's guidence manual had not been given to those using the equipment. Effectively, there hadn't been a way of knowing of maintenance problems, if the equipment was being correctly used, and more importantly, no training at all had been given to workers involved - including the manufacturers instruction booklet.
No matter our work enviroment - what broad lessons can we see from these examples which would be useful to all of us?
Lessons
* People at the sharp end need to know and understand what is involved in undertaking risk assessments, because .....
* Risk assessment is a practical and dynamic activity that is all about keeping people safe. It should NOT be a red tape exercise in box ticking - there is no point having a copy in a file that no one knows about or understands. We all undertake risk assessments instinctively everyday - it's what keeps us safe during mundane daily activities. But this type of risk assessment should not to be confused with assessments at work, perhaps involving dangerous machinery - this requires know-how skills.
And so..
* At the sharp end, workers require training to ensure they are knowledgeable in risk assessment basics
* And, they require safe work procedures - which they also must be trained in - maintenance reporting for example, so that if factors alter or issues arise the suitable action is reported and action is taken
Of course none of this will happen unless managers make sure that...
* There are proper risk assessment systems and everyone knows about them
* They provide appropriate training and information
* And, they have systems for detecting problems as they arise - and deal with them - otherwise there is no chance that accidents at work will be prevented
In conclusion this is what is meant by workers being set up when using industrial plant equipment - they are usually not given the health & safety training or the safe systems of work which they need to remain safe. Also of course, it's obvious that it's not only the employees who use the equipment who require training. As we've witnessed, managers also need to be aware of their roles and duties of care. No amount of operator training is going to make a fundamentally unsafe operation safe, such as through equipment not being used properly or is not maintained.
To let you spread such important health and safety bulletins to everybody in your company we have offered a free online video toolbox training session. It is approximately 15 minutes and shows the pictures of the crane falling into the harbour.
If it were not such a serious incident where someone could have easily been killed, then the series of images would have been comical. The crane, the sort which is on the back of a vehicle with outriggers, was obviously too small for the job. As it begun to lift the car from the habour you can see it begin to tilt and then fall into the habour landing atop of the vehicle it had tried to save.
It may be hard not to look at this accident and say a comment like - the workers on the mobile crane are just really stupid - they should have been more cautious and they are to blame - surely? Actually, in fact, as most enquiries of industrial equipment and plant incidents show, the likelihood is that they have been set up to fail. Yep, workers all have their own accountabilities but with the wrong equipment, training and safe system of work they do not have a chance.
Take as a case in point Leslie Brown, a 43 year old father from Haile in Cumbria who was killed in an accident at work in April 2010. Leslie was helping to unload a vehicle from a low loader trailer when the ramp failed, fell and killed him. The subsequent police and Health & Safety Executive investigation found that there had been previous problems with the ramp. However, at the inquest, the director of the company involved and the transport manager told the inquest that they had not been told of the earlier problem. The transport manager said:
"If there had been a report I would have seen it, but there wasn't a report"
The transport manager also said:
"We didn't have a risk assessment for that particular trailer, but we did have general assessments."
The transport manager, when questioned added that the manufacturer's guidence manual had not been given to those using the equipment. Effectively, there hadn't been a way of knowing of maintenance problems, if the equipment was being correctly used, and more importantly, no training at all had been given to workers involved - including the manufacturers instruction booklet.
No matter our work enviroment - what broad lessons can we see from these examples which would be useful to all of us?
Lessons
* People at the sharp end need to know and understand what is involved in undertaking risk assessments, because .....
* Risk assessment is a practical and dynamic activity that is all about keeping people safe. It should NOT be a red tape exercise in box ticking - there is no point having a copy in a file that no one knows about or understands. We all undertake risk assessments instinctively everyday - it's what keeps us safe during mundane daily activities. But this type of risk assessment should not to be confused with assessments at work, perhaps involving dangerous machinery - this requires know-how skills.
And so..
* At the sharp end, workers require training to ensure they are knowledgeable in risk assessment basics
* And, they require safe work procedures - which they also must be trained in - maintenance reporting for example, so that if factors alter or issues arise the suitable action is reported and action is taken
Of course none of this will happen unless managers make sure that...
* There are proper risk assessment systems and everyone knows about them
* They provide appropriate training and information
* And, they have systems for detecting problems as they arise - and deal with them - otherwise there is no chance that accidents at work will be prevented
In conclusion this is what is meant by workers being set up when using industrial plant equipment - they are usually not given the health & safety training or the safe systems of work which they need to remain safe. Also of course, it's obvious that it's not only the employees who use the equipment who require training. As we've witnessed, managers also need to be aware of their roles and duties of care. No amount of operator training is going to make a fundamentally unsafe operation safe, such as through equipment not being used properly or is not maintained.
To let you spread such important health and safety bulletins to everybody in your company we have offered a free online video toolbox training session. It is approximately 15 minutes and shows the pictures of the crane falling into the harbour.
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