Identifying Potential Injury Situations
In this blog, we will discuss specific types of situations that could result in injuries on any job site. Much of our content gives good information on how to protect your company from financial losses due to injuries, but we also feel it is important to help you identify the types of situations that can result in accidents so that you can create the proper safety policies to prevent accidents.
As business consultants, we work directly with our customers to help them save money and set up protection plans that will benefit their businesses. We feel it is a good idea for you to understand some of the specific types of situations we use as examples when helping customers to understand the risks of doing business.
Worker Injures Back Unloading Supply Truck
Back injuries are common on construction sites, but they can be limited with the proper policies in place. All too often, we have monitored a customer’s job site only to find one person unloading heavy materials from a truck by hand. This type of situation is an accident waiting to happen. To prevent injuries in these cases, you should adopt policies that make it mandatory for two workers or more to unload trucks, and you should also mandate that the proper equipment be used to prevent injuries.
Worker Falls Because of Using Improper Elevation Equipment
Contrary to what your workers may tell you, standing on a stack of paint buckets or wooden pallets is not a safe way to reach heights that are just out of reach. You need to include proper ladder usage and scaffolding rules in your safety policies to prevent these types of careless accidents from happening. You need to make site supervisors accountable for allowing employees to stand on a stack of paint buckets when a ladder is the proper piece of equipment for the job.
Worker Falls From Ladder Because of a Lack of Proper Protection
If a worker who is pulling loose boards down from a ceiling is not secured to the ladder or secured in some way, then a fall is inevitable. When workers are doing work on a ladder where they have to reach overhead or make enhanced motions to get the job done, then there has to be a policy in place that mandates the proper type of protection against a fall.
Worker Gets Trapped in an Unsecured Trench
Construction sites are filled with trenches and pits that will eventually become foundations and swimming pools. But until those trenches and pits are reinforced with their concrete shells, then there needs to be temporary protections in place to prevent a worker from being trapped under the dirt and debris from a collapsed trench.
When we examine a work site, we are looking for specific ways in which workers can be injured. We also work with our customers to put safety policies in place that will prevent accidents that should never happen on a work site with proper protection. As risk experts, it is our job to give you the advice you need to prevent financial loss due to accidents, and to help you to protect your employees at all times.