07.08.2011

Station Death Wish

Sent in over the weekend from a reader in the UK so many cases of bad practice and in a busy station.

It is probably best described in the words of our reader. “Here is one for your death wish series I saw today. I don't think the photo demonstrates what the guys were doing very well but they were repairing pigeon netting. The guy in the machine has no harness on. There is no barrier between the public and machine, but the two banks men on the ground are having a chat between themselves while pedestrians walk underneath. The really annoying part was that when I mentioned to them they were endangering others, they responded that the only danger was me poking my nose in!!!”
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No harness, no cordoning off and a 'devil may care attitude'

This looks like a UK train station, the man in the boom lift platform clearly has his priorities wrong in that he has all the ‘Hi-Viz’ clothing and yet is not wearing a harness. Meanwhile someone has clearly done some form of risk assessment and decided that having two men on the ground to keep pedestrians clear is better than trying to cordon off.

Yes it seems all they are doing is chatting while the very thing they are supposed to prevent – people walking under and close to the machine- goes on unhindered. Better to have had one person and saved the cost of the extra man.

This looks like a typical case of paying lip service to safety. Definitely a candidate for our Death Wish series. If you recognise this location and work there perhaps it should be flagged to whoever is responsible for safe work practices at the site?