07.10.2005

HSE warns on telehandlers and aerial lifts

The UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued a warning to the construction industry today about possible dangers with two items of mobile plant commonly used by contractors, Mobile Elevating Working Platforms (MEWPs) and telehandlers.

The HSE is drawing attention to two specific risks. The first is the danger of an aerial lift operator being trapped against an overhead or adjacent object that prevents the controls from being released. The second concerns the risk of reversing into people with a telehandler.
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An HSE staged photgraph showing how reversing a telehandler is dangerous

Geoff Cox, Head of Operations Yorkshire and North East said today, “There are common features to a number of fatal accidents – and it’s those we want to bring to the attention of the construction industry. If you use these types of plant, you need to know what the risks may be and how to check whether you might have a problem yourselves”.

“It should be relatively simple to assess whether you might have a problem. Solving the problem may involve both management controls and physical measures. The management control issues relate to selecting the most appropriate equipment for the task and site, ensuring operators are properly trained and are familiar with the site and the equipment and setting and enforcing site rules. Physical measures may also be appropriate, but HSE’s advice is that users should always contact the supplier or manufacturer concerned before considering taking any physical measures themselves”.
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An HSE photo showing the risk of crushing against overhead obstacles

The HSE also took the opportunity to say that it is
“working with manufacturers and suppliers so that they can deal with some of these issues at source. For new equipment, this includes changing the design to reduce or eliminate the hazard, or providing means to control the risk. Suppliers and manufacturers have also been encouraged by HSE to provide information to users of existing machines about risk assessment and any additional measures they could take”.

“The HSE is also involved in joint working and visibility research with UK-based manufacturers and suppliers of telehandlers to improve the international design standards to which they are built”.

Vertikal Comment

We have mixed feelings about this bulletin, On the one hand it seems that HSE must be grossly over funded, if it is able to devote so much effort to a risk, that, even quoting its own statistics, involves a handful of incidents a year and one or less fatalities.

Yes one death is one too many, but if instead the HSE would direct its resources towards those who use inappropriate forms of access, or towards local authorities which do not insist that contractors, such as tree surgeons follow work at height rules, or warn construction companies that they should insist that boom lift users wear harnesses or that they should use more powered access. Instead of highlighting a risk that is lower than a walk in the park, perhaps it would start achieving its accident reduction targets.

This warning is akin to the government telling adults that crossing the road can be dangerous if you don’t look before you cross.

To be fair, the warning notice does include a couple of very valuable points. It states that users should be trained by a certified organiation, it also points out that contractors should insist that people on the ground know how to use the emergency lower controls, an absolutely vital point. However these two issues are only in the footnotes and lost to the headline grabbing drama of the main points.

As to telehandlers, this has been an issue for someone at the HSE for some time; the fact is that it is based, as you can see in the photograph supplied, on an obsolete design. The first telehandlers had rear mounted engines, which did indeed create a major blind spot. Today the vast majority of telehandlers have side mounted engines and decent rearward visibility. With back up warning alarms and rear view mirrors the risk of hitting a pedestrian is pretty remote