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Safety in sight
It’s an operation necessarily restricted to low speed, but vehicle reversing is a high
risk manoeuvre in any environment.
With substantial plant operating on an open plan worksite, and aggravating factors such
as noise and dust, the quarry industry needs to be especially rigorous in managing the
risks of reversing plant and vehicles.
Julian Athawes, a plant specialist and MD of Halomec, looks at the issues.
Quarrying still remains one of the most dangerous industries for workers. Since 2000, over 2700 workers have suffered an injury reportable to HSE, 21 of those being fatal.
The statistics abound. Over all industries, vehicles account for 25% of fatal accidents, rising to 60% in quarrying. Vehicle accidents in quarries and open cast sites account on average for 50% of all quarry deaths, many of these while reversing.
When it comes to vehicle safety, size does make a difference. The quarry industry may boast some of the biggest mobile plant, but these super-size vehicles pose some of the biggest problems for the driver’s field of vision.
Due to their size, large wheeled loaders, face shovels, excavators and dump trucks can suffer from poor visibility from the cab. Views can be hampered to the side or front of the vehicle, as well as behind.
Unsighted manoeuvres by large dump trucks pose a risk to other smaller service vehicles. A Landrover, for example, stands little chance against a 50 plus tonne fully loaded truck.
Loads can hamper visibility, too: drivers of lift trucks and compact dumper vehicles may have difficulty with forward visibility when moving large loads.
In fact, there will be varying degrees of difficulty with visibility in operating other quarry vehicles: bulldozers, excavators, face shovels, scrapers, graders, fork-lift trucks, lorries and so on.
Responsibilities
Of course, the industry is more than aware of its responsibilities and duty of care.
Over the last ten years, a raft of health and safety guidance, initiatives and updated legislation – and no little effort by quarry owners and operators themselves - has driven up standards in the safe operation of vehicles and plant.
Since the launch of the HSE’s Hard Target Initiative in 2000, the quarry sector has achieved a 55% reduction in accidents (up to the year 2006/07). And it continues to make strides towards its target of achieving zero reportable accidents by 2015.
A first step to reducing the risk of an accident caused by a reversing vehicle is simply to eliminate the need to reverse wherever possible.
If not, the risk assessment should consider if there is enough room to reverse, whether people can be excluded from the area, and whether vehicles are using the most suitable route for reversing.
Managing traffic routes, using a one-way system and segregating vehicles during operation are other ways of reducing the need to reverse or the risk of collision from it.
Where it is difficult to implement rules on vehicle movements, some control can be effected through physical measures - gates, barriers, and flow plates or control spikes which can only be crossed one way.
Visibility
When every step has been taken to reduce the need to reverse, ensuring excellent visibility for drivers when performing reversing manoeuvres becomes key.
According to the HSE, in every quarry accident involving moving vehicles, the lack of all-round visibility for the operator has played a significant part.
The need for good visibility is highlighted in core legislation - the Quarries Regulations 1999 - with reference to PUWER (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998). Regulation 28 in PUWER requires that “where the driver's direct field of vision is inadequate to ensure safety, there are
adequate devices for improving his vision so far as is reasonably practicable….”
The importance of 360 degree visibility cannot be over-emphasised, as the HSE states in its ‘Let drivers see and be safe’ advice document. This states: “It is difficult to envisage any operation of a vehicle which does not have all-round driver visibility, where proper risk assessment would fail to identify the need for all-round visibility aids.”
The 1m stick test is the accepted method of assessing visibility from the cab.
This requires that drivers must be able to see the top of a stick both 1m from the vehicle and 1m above ground level at all times without the need to look over their shoulder.
Based on this, the health and safety manager can then work out what supplementary visual aids may be needed to comply.
Machines should also be visible themselves, through the use of bright paint work, visibility stripes on the rear of the machine, roof beacon, warning signs, good lighting including roof lights and high intensity reversing lights. Vehicles and equipment should also be cleaned regularly.
Reversing aids
The market has seen huge growth in reversing aids – from convex mirrors and reversing alarms to radar sensors and vehicle CCTV - to enhance reversing safety as well as to achieve the 1.0m golden rule.
When it comes to ‘real sight’ rather than sensory technology, vehicle CCTV, together with convex mirrors, are becoming a staple in health and safety equipment specifications for quarry plant and vehicles.
In Mobile Plant Reversing & Visibility Aids, published 2006 by the British Cement Association, the use of reversing cameras is recommended to comply with the 1.0m stick test. It says: “To achieve compliance…, the following equipment should be considered as part of the overall risk assessment and usually fitted as a minimum: closed circuit television (CCTV), convex internal rear view mirror, convex segment wing mirrors on each side.”
Like the BCA, the HSE promotes a ‘belt-and-braces’ approach to the provision of visual aids. In ‘Let drivers see and be safe’, it states: “Fit curved convex mirrors as well as normal reversing mirrors and you will be able to see right and left and to the front of the machine. Fit closed circuit television (CCTV) or radar as well and you will have the all-round visibility you need.”
In its advice document, “Vehicles at Work - Safe Manoeuvring”, the HSE also states: “CCTV can cover most blind spots. The cost of fitting CCTV systems has fallen since the technology was first developed, and the systems are more reliable. Companies who have fitted CCTV have found that it can reduce the number of reversing accidents, so the systems usually pay for themselves in a few years.”
Sophisticated
Specifications for modern reversing camera technology are becoming more and more sophisticated to meet even the most demanding needs, such as the ‘monster trucks’ and harsh environments of heavy construction and quarrying.
High resolution, colour monitors are now widely available, generously sized - typically 5” and 7” - and with full adjustment, as you would expect, of contrast, brightness and resolution for overcast or bright conditions. A hood may be needed to shield the screen from glare.A reputable supplier will carry out a visibility assessment and advise on the ideal camera specification, configuration and positioning of cameras, while also installing and commissioning them. The styling and ergonomics of in-cab monitors continues to be updated, with many now having an integrated controller with fewer and more accessible components for easier installation and servicing. Multiple cameras can be of benefit to large vehicles, as can wireless picture transmission where the location of the camera makes it very difficult to wire back to the in-cab monitor. Bromfield Sand & Gravel
Wayne Clent is the quarry manager for Bromfield Sand & Gravel in Ludlow, an independent which also manufactures concrete blocks involving added traffic from lorries making bulk cement deliveries and artics collecting blocks.
Previously with a large quarry group, Wayne has helped the company make great strides with health and safety since he joined in September 2006.
He says: “We don’t have ready-made guidelines on vehicle health and safety like the big groups, so we have had to work hard to establish procedures that work for the particular operational needs of our site.”
Deposit is hauled by dump truck to a field hopper half a mile away, then conveyed to the process plant and stockpile area which is accessible by the public, further complicating health and safety provision.
The stockpile site operates two loading shovels, an articulated dump truck, a stock lorry, a telehandler, a forklift and a couple of road delivery trucks.
Bromfield invests in the latest reversing safety equipment, as Wayne comments: “We use a combination of radar, colour reversing cameras and convex mirrors. The articulated dump truck has extra convex mirrors to comply with the 1m rule.
“We are currently looking at a new generation of the radar braking system as an additional measure.”
One-way
Wayne says: “We eliminate reversing operations wherever we can.
“Stockpiles have been set to make them more accessible and the need for reversing is minimal. The site also operates a one-way system. When vehicles are parked, it is ensured that the next time they are used, the first movement must be in a forward direction.”
The one-way system is integral to Bromfield’s rigorous safety provision for members of the general public who can buy materials direct from site.
Wayne remarks: “Obviously, our domestic customers are unaware of the health and safety risks of the quarry site, so we have implemented strict controls to safeguard them when visiting.
“Drivers are banned from getting out of their vehicle in areas beyond the weighbridge unless they are wearing high visibility clothing, a hard hat and have been authorised to do so. There is also a strict speed limit on site.”
He adds: “We now pre-bag materials for our retail customers so they are not dismounting from their vehicles to hand shovel their own materials from the stockpiles.”
To maintain good visibility, stockpile areas are irrigated to suppress dust as well as all roads on the site right up to the main highway.
Segregation
Task segregation is also helping to reduce the risks from mobile plant, as Wayne explains: “We have implemented an operational hierarchy giving priority to the movement of certain machines.
“For example, when the loading shovel is in use, operators and other machines are not allowed to enter its working zone. This eliminates the need to negotiate other plant or people, removing the associated hazards, minimising disruption and supporting greater efficiency.”
Health and safety theory is no good without personnel instruction and awareness, so training is a continuous focus at Bromfield, as Wayne Clent points out: “Plant and vehicle safety is always a key part of our health and safety meetings.
“Our operators are EPIC certified in terms of plant operation and we also have regular toolbox talks on maintaining the vehicles themselves in safe condition, checking brakes, keeping them clean and so on.”
Wayne stresses: “Daily inspections must be carried out by each operator at the start of the shift or when a machine is first used. The inspections are recorded and any faults must be reported.”
The signs are that legislative requirements and standards will only get tougher in relation to risk assessment, safe working practice and mandatory equipment to improve the safety of mobile quarry plant, especially when reversing.
Although manufacturers continue to push the envelope towards ‘zero-risk’ reversing technology, sound training and supervision will remain paramount in reducing the risks from reversing in the quarry industry.
For more information on our reversing CCTV systems ( Click Here )
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Halomec supply, install and service Lincoln & Prolec in the UK.
If you need help specifying or choosing the right solution for your
plant machinery call: +44 (0) 870 161 1058 or Click here to email.
We give FREE quotations and good advice.
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Halomec Ltd, Unit G4C, Bath Road Trading Estate, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 3QF UK Telephone: +44 (0) 870 161 1058
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