It’s fair to say that sometimes even the most experienced of us make mistakes.
Unfortunately, on our highways, errors can lead to severe accidents, personal harm, and in the very worst-case scenario, fatalities.
Safety training is prevalent across the entire sector whether it be general site rules, manual handling, working at height or any of the other specialised nuances prepared for to keep our workers safe.
In this particular case, three points of contact when climbing a ladder is key.
However, familiarity can breed confidence and desensitise even the most seasoned operative to the dangers of their task.
Recently, on the A46 Smart Renewables scheme for Kier in Area 9, Crown Highways Grab Driver operative Andy Davis suffered a nasty and potentially very dangerous fall due to a slip of both the hands, and in his thinking as he ascended up his vehicle.
Three points of contact
As the video above shows, Andy attempted to further climb the vehicle whilst not having three points of contact with the ladder he was climbing. Instead attempting to ‘jump’ up the ladders.
As is clearly seen, the result is Andy taking a harrowing backwards fall onto some loose material.
He was lucky not to be seriously injured.
Crown Highways: What next?
Not a company to allow the same mistake to happen again, Andy was re-briefed and re-trained on using access ladders correctly, along with every other Grab Driver operative in the Crown Highways team.
Additionally, Crown Highways has installed new handrails in each of the grab wagons to help the drivers climb more easily.
Managing Director Mike Dale said:
“Whilst in virtually every walk of life we can accept that small mistakes happen, in this particular industry we can’t allow to be so forgiving. Any slip can very quickly become a major health risk, so we have to make sure we treat each incident with the seriousness is warrants and take action to avoid future occurrences.
“Andy was very lucky and returned to work the next day, sound in the knowledge that he’s had a lucky escape. As a company we are committed to making sure our employees are aware of the consequences of mistakes in relation to safety, where even momentary lapses in concentration can be crucial.”
“We’ve produced this video for the community to use to highlight the risks of climbing up and down vehicles, hopefully by briefing this out to your teams further accidents can be prevented.”
