Each day, construction workers are hit by hazards. These hazards include vehicles, wood, tools, work materials, etc. And it’s called a “struck-by hazard” in the construction industry.
Struck-by injuries accounted for nearly one in five construction workplace fatalities.
However, there are many laws and regulations designed to protect workers from having a struck-by hazard, it has been the management’s responsibility to ensure that those laws are maintained to provide a safe working environment for the employees.
This toolbox talk will give us a view of what to do in this regard.
Struck by hazard; What are you to do to maintain safety today?
Lifting and rigging operations.
- Use tagline during lifting and rigging operations to control and manoeuvre the loads.
- Ensure even distribution of loads, and secure them properly before the lifting operations.
- Do not stand under any suspended load.
- Do not allow a load to fly over your head during lifting operations.
- Inspect cranes and other lifting accessories and ensure they are in good condition.
- Do not exceed the safe lifting capacity of the lifting equipment or any of the accessories.
Falling objects from heights:
- Do not stack materials closer to the roof edges as this likely falls.
- If there is a need to stack materials closer to the edges, please secure them and make them stable and self-supporting.
- Ensure there is a proper stacking of materials on site.
- Provide a guardrail system at every edge of a work platform. Ensure there is a top rail, mid-rail and toe board to prevent the fall of materials and persons.
- Ensure there is a box or bag for your hand tools when climbing at height or when at height doing a job. The toolbox to carry tools like hammer, nails, spanner etc.
- Introduce debris nets to catch falling objects from height.
Scaffolding activity.
- Provision of overhead protection for all workers working where there are overhead hazards during scaffolding.
- Hoisting of loads unto a scaffold must have a tag line to control the load.
- All scaffolds or platforms have to carry toe boards to prevent material fall from height.
Excavation.
- Do not place any load near the edges of an excavation.
- Do not park vehicles or equipment near the excavation edge.
- Stand away from any vehicle or a digging machine used to lift a load during excavation.
Personal protective equipment.
- Make provisions for personal protective equipment such as hard hats, and safety boots.
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