Tag: Toolbox Talks

Assured Clear Distance — Avoiding Rear-End Collisions

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According to the National Safety Council, more than 2.5 million rear-end collisions are reported every year, making them the most common type of automobile accident. The likelihood of a rear-end collision is about 14 times higher than any other workplace accident.

The root cause of most rear-end collisions is insufficient distance between vehicles. The driver fails to keep enough distance between his/her vehicle and the vehicle in front of them. When the first vehicle stops, turns suddenly or simply slows down unexpectedly, the second vehicle does not have sufficient time and space to stop before colliding with it.

We often call these accidents “whiplash accidents” because they can result in whiplash injury to the driver in the front vehicle. About 20 percent of all people involved in rear-end collisions exhibit whiplash symptoms. Spinal and back injuries require long recovery times and can result in permanently impaired physical conditions.

Keep an assured clear distance (unobstructed space between the lead vehicle and the trailing vehicle) to help eliminate rear-end collisions. When following a vehicle, always drive as though a sudden stop will happen and practice the following procedures to help prevent a rear-end collision:

  1. Maintain a safe following distance — at least one vehicle length for each 10 miles-per-hour.
  2. Increase your following distance when:
    • Roads are slippery;
    • Visibility is low;
    • Being tailgated;
    • Following a large vehicle; or
    • Following a vehicle that could stop suddenly, like a bus or a garbage truck.
  3. Be aware of your surroundings.
  4. Be predictable:
    • Slow gradually when coming to a stop;
    • Use your turn signals; and
    • Check your signal lights frequently to make sure they work.

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What a Pain in the Knee

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Every year, the construction industry accounts for nearly 1.8 million injuries that result from physical strain, and approximately 40 percent of all worker compensation claims involve medical treatment for these injuries. Knee injuries account for a sizable number of reported incidences. Like many injuries, once you injure your knee, you have increased the chances for knee pain later in life.

A survey in the Journal of Civil Engineering and Management revealed 90 percent of all construction workers suffer pain, and 89 percent continue to work right through the pain. When it comes to an injury, suffering is not the best approach to healing. Being knowledgeable about various types of knee injuries and knowing how to deal with them is a much better approach.

Ligament Sprains

Ligaments are bands of strong tissue that stabilize the knee joint. Overstretching can cause the ligament fiber to tear and bleed into the surrounding tissues, causing pain, swelling and a feeling of ‘giving way.’ Severe tears may require surgery.

Cartilage Tears

Cartilage also helps stabilize and protect the knee joint. Pressure from twisting and turning during weight-bearing activities may tear the cartilage, causing pain, swelling and locking of the knee joint.

Tendon Strains

Tendons are cord-like bands that connect muscle to bone. The patellar tendon connects the kneecap (patella) to the tibia (shin). Patellar tendonitis or ‘jumper’s knee’ is inflammation of the patellar tendon. This is an overuse injury commonly caused by repeated jumping.

Patello-Femoral Syndrome

Excessive friction between the surface of the patello-femoral joint (kneecap) and the femur (thigh) can result in knee pain.

So what can you do once you’ve injured your knee? Treatment depends on your specific injury, and what your doctor has to say. Mild to moderate injuries will often heal on their own, given time. To speed the following, you can:

  • Give your knee a rest for a few days and avoid intense activity.
  • Ice your knee for 20-30 minutes at a time, several times a day, for the first two or three days following an injury to help reduce pain and swelling.
  • Compress your knee using an elastic bandage, straps or sleeves to add support or reduce swelling.
  • Elevate your knee on a pillow when you’re sitting or lying down in order to reduce swelling.
  • Take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Advil®, Aleve® or Motrin® to help with pain and swelling. These drugs can have side effects and should be used only occasionally, unless your doctor specifically says otherwise.
  • Practice stretching and strengthening exercises if your doctor recommends them.

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Nails—The Unexpected Hazard

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Workers used 1.3 billion pounds of nails on American construction projects in 2013. To get an idea of how many nails that is, multiply 1.3 billion by the average number of nails in a pound, which is 65, to get approximately 84.5 billion nails. It is important to remember that each swing of the hammer or pull of the nail gun trigger creates an opportunity for injury.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the construction industry reported 140,000 hand injuries last year. This represents only the injuries serious enough to report to OSHA. Smashed thumbs and bruised hands make the number of injuries closer to 500,000—most from driving nails.

In addition, punctures, scrapes and cuts from nails that workers didn’t properly remove from lumber and other debris account for 20 percent of all minor injuries on work sites.

Common sense precautions to keep in mind with using nails and nail guns include:

  • Keep your hammer in good shape, and make sure the handle is not split or broken.
  • Make sure the strike face is flat so the driving blow is 90 degrees to the nail head.
  • Keep the supply airline and the supply electric line on nail guns in safe working condition.
  • Ensure the nail gun safety and trigger function properly.
  • Ensure the material you are nailing into provides a seat for the nail. This keeps others safe by preventing the nail from shooting through the material.
  • Never horseplay with nail guns. The outcome can be fatal.
  • Always bend or pull nails when stripping.
  • Use the correct device for pulling nails.
  • Carefully discard used nails in the appropriate receptacle.

Equipment Spotters

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According to the Federal Highway Administration, equipment accidents on worksites cause more than a hundred deaths each year. The administration’s statistics show that between 2005 and 2010, major causes of worksite deaths involving construction equipment included:

  • Runovers/backovers – often caused by dump trucks – accounted for 24 percent of worker fatalities on construction sites.
  • Vehicle/equipment collisions and caught between/struck by construction equipment and objects each caused 14 percent of worksite deaths during that period.

How can we avoid this type of accident? How can we protect employees? Two words: equipment spotters. Use a spotter when you are backing a vehicle or piece of machinery, or when you are entering and/or moving a vehicle or machinery in a congested area. Use a spotter when visibility is poor and pedestrians or co-workers are in the area. Use a spotter to alert you to equipment obscured from your view.

Take precautions to protect your spotters. OSHA recommends implementing the following actions to keep them safe:

  • Ensure spotters and drivers agree on hand signals before you begin backing a vehicle or piece of machinery.
  • Instruct spotters to maintain visual contact with the driver while the driver is backing the vehicle.
  • Instruct drivers to stop backing immediately if they lose sight of the spotter.
  • Do not give spotters additional duties while they are acting as spotters.
  • Instruct spotters not to use personal mobile phones, headphones or other items that could pose a distraction during spotting activities.
  • Provide spotters with high-visibility clothing, especially during night operations.

Follow these simple guidelines to protect yourself when working in an area with moving vehicles or equipment:

  • Stay alert.
  • Don’t get distracted.
  • Stay a safe distance from machinery.
  • Keep off the equipment unless authorized.
  • Watch for shifting or unstable loads.
  • Wear high-visibility clothing.

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Lime Hazards in Soil Stabilization

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Rainfall is generally plentiful during late winter and early spring. Higher temperatures allow the ground to absorb the rain rather than freezing above ground. This eventually saturates the soil and can cause it to become very unstable. Soil can then flow easily and have little-to-no compressive strength. That means the soil won’t support weight, allowing objects to sink into it.

Wet, unstable soil can pose safety hazards during construction. One method of stabilization is the use of calcium hydroxide (commonly known as lime). This chemical, combined with the moisture in the soil, will make a firm, concrete-like mixture that will stabilize the soil.

While the use of lime is sometimes necessary, it comes with its own set of health and safety hazards. The OSHA Safety Data Sheet lists the following hazards when using lime:

  • Lime is a dry, powdery substance that can produce significant dust. This dust can be a severe irritant to the skin and the mucus membranes of the eyes, mouth and lungs. Keep skin covered as much as possible (including face, neck and wrists).
  • Lime dust can remove the skin’s natural oils, causing cracked skin. In severe cases, over prolonged periods of time, this can lead to open fissures of the skin and severe bleeding.
  • Eye irritation from lime dust can cause intense watering of the eyes. Prolonged exposure can potentially cause lesions and even blindness.
  • Inhaling lime dust may lead to irritation of breathing passages, coughing and sneezing.
  • If ingested, lime can cause pain, vomiting, bleeding, diarrhea, a drop in blood pressure, collapse, and in prolonged cases, it can cause a perforation of the esophagus or stomach lining.
  • Almost all varieties of lime powder contain some crystalline silica dust as well, which may result in respiratory disease, including silicosis, pneumoconiosis and pulmonary fibrosis.

Lime has many beneficial uses in construction but we must handle it with care. Avoid contact with skin; use the appropriate respirator; and wash well after any exposure. This is the best defense against the hazards lime can cause.

Cold Weather Machine Safety

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Cold weather affects motorized equipment — not only the engine, but the hydraulic systems as well. Equipment that does not operate smoothly or predictably is a safety hazard to operators and other workers near it.

You should apply engine coolants and hydraulic hose lubricants in the fall before cold weather actually sets in. Throughout the winter, it is important to plan extra time to let the machine warm up. When you park a machine for 16 or more hours, both the engine and all of the operating systems will be at ambient temperature, which in winter can be 20° or lower on many mornings, well below normal operating temperature for the equipment. Failing to warm the engine could result in material damage, accidents and injury to workers due to engine stalls and jerky, uncontrollable actions of the hydraulic systems.

If you don’t allow the engine to warm completely, the cold can damage engine valve components. When an engine runs below normal operating temperature, it doesn’t completely burn the fuel and oil in the combustion chambers. The result is soft carbon deposits, which will interfere with valve operation, and can cause burned valves, bent pushrods and other damage to valve mechanism components. To avoid valve damage, always run the engine until the coolant temperature is at least 82° Celsius (180° Fahrenheit).

One major equipment manufacturer suggests that you begin the warmup with the hydraulics. They recommend that the operator run the engine at less than one-third throttle and slowly move the control lever in order to lift the attachment, then lower the attachment slowly. Continue the sequence: raising, lowering, extending and retracting, extending the travel during each cycle. We refer to this as exercising the equipment. Exercising the equipment will bring the machine and its operating components up to the appropriate operating temperature, which will ensure smooth and safe operation of the equipment.

Remember, keep machines in good running condition and plan that extra time for warmup.

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