Working Safely: Doing things right!
This morning, one of our managers, Naveen, saw an unsafe act being performed pertaining to the use of an aerial boomlift. He couldn’t help but stop to inform the foreman and hope the unsafe task would be stopped.
As we can see in the image below (click to zoom in), the boomlift is raised approximately 50 ft in the air unoccupied. The operator is at the very top of the structure conducting work. How did he manage to get up there?
Boomlifts are not meant as a means of entry or egress. They are strictly for use to allow an operator to conduct work at an elevated location while being firmly positioned within the platform. Common sense – right?
Looking at this structure, it does have a major design flaw as the access ladder does not come all the way to the base – it starts at 50 ft in the air. The foreman asked Naveen how would he conduct the work. Naveen thought about the safest solution, which would have been the access ladder. In any event, the next safest solution would be to setup scaffolding. Not exiting a boomlift elevated 50 ft in the air!
We would like to say kudos to this construction firm as they suspended operation and and brought the worker down. We hope they will indeed get the proper scaffolding in place to conduct the work safely in the future.
If you think the work you are conducting is dangerous and is putting your life or someone else’ life in danger, please stop immediately and ask your supervisor to find out a safe solution. Contact your local rental company, speak to an industry specialist – accidents happen at the blink of an eye.
Now we need to find out why Naveen was at the casino this morning instead of working…
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from your friends at NIS Training.
“Work Safe, Stay Safe”