Vehicles and transport safety

Where people and vehicles work together, serious accidents can happen. Most transport accidents involve people being hit or run over, struck by objects falling from vehicles, falling from vehicles while loading or unloading, or vehicles overturning.

The only truly effective answer is to keep vehicles and pedestrians entirely apart so that they cannot be in the same space at the same time. Use barriers, or schedule vehicle and pedestrian work at different times. If people must work where there are vehicles, physical barriers are better than marked walkways, and well marked walkways are far better than letting people choose their own route. Add signs and train people to take notice of them. A line marking a walkway is no use if people do not know which side is safe.

Office workers should not think it does not apply to them. Many people are injured in car parks and on the approach to office buildings, because these are off the public road and seem safe.

Reversing is a special problem when the driver cannot see behind. Reduce the need to reverse, for example with one-way systems, have someone watch the vehicle, and make everyone aware of the danger.

As a duty holder ask:

• What vehicles operate and what are they doing: reversing, loading and unloading, tipping, cleaning, maintenance, stability?
• Are drivers trained and experienced on their vehicles, and do they respect speed limits, one-way systems and pedestrian areas?
• Are pedestrians aware of how to behave, keeping clear of vehicle areas, using pedestrian routes and treating site traffic with the respect they give to road traffic?
• What safe working practices are in place?

Vibration

Exposure to vibration at work happens in two main ways:

• Hand-arm vibration (HAV) passes into the hands and arms from hand-held power tools such as road breakers, from hand-guided equipment such as powered mowers, or from holding material that is being worked by a machine such as a grinder. Regular exposure can cause permanent harm, such as vibration white finger.
• Whole-body vibration (WBV) passes through the spine, mainly when people drive vehicles such as tractors and earth movers for long periods. It is linked to musculoskeletal and other health problems.

In the UK about five million workers are exposed to hand-arm vibration, and about 1.7 million of them to levels with a clear risk of disease.

You may need to act if workers report tingling or numbness in the hands or fingers after using vibrating tools, hold workpieces that vibrate, regularly use hand-held or hand-guided power tools such as sanders, grinders, hammer drills or mowers, use hammer action tools for more than about 15 minutes a day or some rotary tools for more than about an hour a day, or work in industries with high exposure such as construction, foundries, heavy steel fabrication or shipyards. If so, do a risk assessment and then an action plan, considering:

• other ways of working that remove or reduce exposure
• the lowest vibration tool that can do the work, and limiting the use of high vibration tools
• a purchasing policy that replaces older machinery with low vibration equipment
• workstation design that reduces the load on hands, wrists and arms
• maintenance, since poorly maintained equipment vibrates more
• protective clothing, which helps circulation and so protects against vibration white finger

5.4 Getting It Right

Although the range of common hazards is wide, some simple steps work for all of them:

• assess the risks
• involve your team in assessing the risks and finding solutions
• give information and training to anyone who needs it
• carry out regular workplace inspections
• get competent advice and act on it

Summary

1. Common hazards fall into six groups: mechanical, physical, chemical, biological, environmental and organisational.
2. You can manage them by assessing the risks, involving your team, giving information and training, inspecting the workplace regularly and getting competent advice.

A study aid, not published or endorsed by IOSH or OSHA. Laws and limits differ between countries.