Tag: workers

Struck-By Injuries

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Falls, electrocutions, struck-by and caught-between accidents account for the greatest number of fatalities in the construction industry. In fact, over 90 percent of all construction fatalities involve one of these four hazards. Thirty-three percent are attributed to falls, 22 percent to struck-by accidents, 18 percent to caught-between accidents and 17 percent to electrical shock. This has led OSHA in recent years to focus on these four hazards, especially when conducting onsite inspections. These hazards are often referred to in the construction industry as the “Focus Four Hazards” or the “Big Four.”

With this Toolbox Talk, we will single out the “struck-by” accidents and the hazards associated with them. It is important to know and understand how these accidents occur and what safeguards need to be in place. On a construction site, the potential is there to be struck from several angles. One of the more common struck-by hazards is being struck or run over by vehicles or equipment, especially those with obstructed rear views.

In order to prevent struck-by incidents involving vehicular traffic and construction equipment, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recommends:

  • Implementing policies that require workers on foot to maintain a safe clearance from mobile equipment.
  • Requiring equipment operators to operate equipment only when pedestrians are in plain sight.
  • Instructing workers on foot to approach construction equipment only when the operator recognizes their need to approach and assures them that it is okay to approach.
  • Requiring all workers to wear high-visibility clothing at all times while on the job site.

Construction vehicles and equipment are not the only potential sources of struck-by hazards. There are many occasions when workers are exposed to overhead hazards such as tools, materials and other objects that can be dropped or released and strike a worker. Two practices to put in place that will help to avoid these types of injuries are:

  • Pre-planning routes for suspended loads to ensure that no employee is required to work directly below a load. This is a practice that should always be used. Some have even chosen to hoist materials via crane or derrick before a shift begins to minimize the number of personnel working in the area.
  • Using toeboards and screens to prevent objects from falling on individuals at a lower level.

Safety is recognizing potential hazards, and putting controls in place to avoid injuries. If we follow some basic precautions, we can prevent struck-by injuries from occurring.

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Distracted Walking: More Serious Than You Think

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Almost everyone has heard about the dangers of distracted driving. Distractions may be anything from talking on a mobile phone to interacting with a passenger – anything that moves our attention away from what we’re doing. When this happens, we can make harmful mistakes.

These same issues apply to distracted walking. Take a look at the large number of people walking while doing some other activity – talking on a cell phone, using earbuds to listen to music, watching a video or reading a message on a mobile device. People trust themselves to be able to walk while doing other activities that draw a lot of attention. It’s as if people think that walking is so automatic, they don’t need to pay attention.

A new study on distracted walking released by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) finds that more than three quarters (78 percent) of U.S. adults believe that distracted walking is a “serious” issue. Some people referred to this as “zoning out.”

“Today, the dangers of the ‘digital dead walker’ are growing with more and more people falling down stairs, tripping over curbs, bumping into others, or stepping into the path of on-coming vehicles causing a rising number of injuries—from scrapes and bruises to sprains and fractures,” said Alan Hilibrand, MD, AAOS spokesperson. Emergency department hospital visits for injuries involving distracted walkers on cell phones more than doubled between 2004 and 2010, according to a 2013 study appearing in the journal Accident, Analysis & Prevention.

One of the challenges in combating distracted walking may be that we’re overly confident in our ability to multitask. When asked why they walk distracted, 48 percent of respondents in the AAOS study said “they just don’t think about it,” 28 percent feel “they can walk and do other things,” and 22 percent “are busy and want to use their time productively.”

The issue of distracted walking is especially serious when it takes place on a construction site. The possibility for severe injury is much greater because of the configuration of walkways and the unfinished state of most walkway conditions. A further hazard is moving equipment in and around the construction site. Often times equipment operators are watching the condition of their loads and not paying attention to workers who are walking around the site. If a worker on the ground isn’t paying attention to what’s happening on the site, too, the situation could end in tragedy.

Safety professionals have developed a practice to control distracted walking caused by mobile phones – the cell phone safe zone. This is a designated place on the construction site where no traffic or trip fall hazards are allowed, enabling a worker to use a phone safely without worrying about anything else that’s going on in the area.

Outside of the cell phone safe zone, companies should prohibit distractions or constantly remind workers to engage – that is, pay attention while we walk.

“The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons urges workers to avoid musculoskeletal and other injuries by engaging with their surroundings — drivers, other walkers and obstacles,” said

Dr. Hilibrand. “Many of us simply need to force ourselves to set down our devices and focus on what’s in front of and around us.”

Download the recording form here.

Line-of-Fire Injuries

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An analysis of the most recent five-year history of accidents and injuries reported by the IDOL/ICA Safety Partnership members shows workers caused 20 percent of reported injuries by putting themselves (or some part of their body) in the direct pathway of oncoming harm, or the line of fire. While most of these accidents result in crushed fingers and hands or broken toes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 17 percent of U.S. workplace fatalities are the result of line-of-fire accidents.

When we hear about accidents – such as the one where a worker crushed his hand in a tri-axle truck tailgate that was swinging shut – we might be tempted to ask, “What were they thinking?” Nobody wants to get hurt, and we design most jobs to eliminate the risk of injury. So, how do workers get into these line-of-fire situations?

They don’t believe they are placing themselves in real danger. Sometimes workers who place themselves in the line of fire are making a decision based on imperfect information. They either assume that something is true when it is not, or they assume something is not true when it is.

They believe the time of exposure is short enough that nothing can happen to them. How many line-of-fire injuries are the result of thinking, “I’m only going to be in there for a second?” It’s a big temptation to take a risk when you believe that your probability of injury is directly proportional to the length of time you will be exposed to the hazard. Too few workers truly comprehend the dangers that some line-of-fire hazards pose irrespective of the length of exposure. If a worker contacts a sufficiently energized piece of equipment, he will be electrocuted, even if he touches the equipment for one second.

Familiarity causes people to be too comfortable. For most of us, the longer we work around a hazard or place ourselves in the line of fire without negative consequences, the less we respect the hazard’s ability to harm us. We convince ourselves that an activity is safer than it is. We think we won’t get hurt as long as we’re careful. But, placing ourselves in the line of fire is anything but being careful.

It is important to think through a task and find ways to prevent putting yourself in the line of fire.

New OSHA Construction Standard – Part I

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OSHA published the final rule covering confined space in construction in the Federal Register on May 5. The rule will become law before the end of this summer. With this in mind, all workers and supervisors should understand the general expectations of the law and be ready to comply with the specific requirements.

We rarely encounter confined space issues in some types of construction work. However, because there is a new and specific regulation, compliance officers should be aware of the hazards of confined space and be watchful for possible situations where confined space protocols should be applied.

In order to understand the requirements for this new regulation, we must first understand the definition of confined space. A confined space is one that:

  • Is large enough and configured so that an employee can bodily enter it;
  • Has limited or restricted means of entry and exit; and
  • Is not designed for continuous employee occupancy.

Some of the more common confined spaces we encounter on construction sites include:

  • Pits (elevator, escalator, pump, valve or other equipment. A pit can have a wide-open top and still be a permit-required confined space.);
  • Manholes (sewer, storm drain, electrical, communication or other utility);
  • Tanks (fuel, chemical, water, or other liquid, solid or gas) and machinery (incinerators, scrubbers, concrete pier columns and sewers);
  • Vaults (transformer, electrical connection and machinery);
  • Ducts (heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and all forms of HVAC, air receivers, air preheaters and ID fan systems, bag houses and exhaust);
  • Storm drains (water mains, precast concrete and other pre-formed units);
  • Drilled shafts;
  • Enclosed beams;
  • Vessels;
  • Digesters;
  • Lift stations;
  • Cesspools;
  • Silos; and
  • Sludge gates.

This is by no means a comprehensive list. In fact, the basic definition of confined space can apply to hundreds of situations where workers might be in a hazardous situation, and escape would be difficult.

Part II of this discussion will cover programs to put in place that will provide maximum safety for workers in a confined space.