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Use protection to prevent
falls
Source: WorkSafe Victoria
Greg Davies, site superintendant
for Fulton Hogan, talks about
preventing falls from earthmoving
equipment. Greg has nearly 30 years
experience in the earthmoving industry,
working as a labourer operating a wide
variety of plant and in supervisory
roles. He is currently working on the
Melbourne Markets Relocation
Project.
Early in my career I fell from a piece
of plant and struck my head on another
vehicle parked nearby. This brought
home to me the importance of remaining
vigilant around plant including using
three points of contact when
entering/exiting plant and maintaining
good underfoot conditions.
I now supervise a wide variety of
earthwork activities ranging from
drainage, sewer and bulk earthworks, to
pavement and structures work.
Working around earthmoving equipment
and the risk of falls are the main
health and safety hazards on this site.
The risk of falls is especially high
when entering and exiting vehicles or
during pre-start checks, often
performed before sunrise in damp and
slippery conditions.
I have spoken about this topic
regularly in Toolbox Talks over the
past 10 years reminding operators that
hands should be free and lunch boxes
placed in machines before entering.
Lend Lease requires fall protection to
be in place for all work above 1.2
metres on the Melbourne Markets site.
To address the risk of falls from
earthmoving equipment Fulton Hogan, in
a combined effort with Lend Lease,
installed safety guardrails around all
unprotected edges on excavators and
dump trucks. Although not all plant had
guardrails in the beginning, it is now
a site entry requirement and the uptake
from suppliers has been encouraging and
well received.
This initiative has shown that
guardrails for an excavator can be
installed for about $4000. The
investment in the safety of operators,
service personnel and refuelling
persons is a paltry sum when weighed
against the possible consequence of a
fall.
We also initiated the provision of
platform ladders which have eliminated
the risk associated with climbing on
trailers to unload materials being
delivered to site. This, combined with
pre-slung pipes and pits, has enabled
unloading to be done from the ground or
the stability of the platform ladder.
The platform ladders have also been
utilised to change the globes in
flashing lights, ensuring workers have
fall protection.
Preventing falls from plant doesn't
have to be expensive or difficult, but
it is a risk that cannot be ignored.
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