Working At Heights Training Can Prevent Serious Injury
By taking Working At Heights Training death or major injury can be prevented
Employers and subcontactors need to be aware of the serious risks when working from heights following the death of a man working on a duck farm on a property near Nhill. Working at heights training was not considered to be an option.
Worksafe continues to work with industry and employers to highlight the dangers of working at heights.
Falls from height are one of the biggest killers of Victorian workers. They happen on all kinds of sites and to people performing all types of tasks and employers need to have systems in place to prevent them.
This tragic death is a terrible reminder of what can happen when employers don’t consider that training and safety is the key to prevention.
A Front End Loader Is Not A Safe Working Platform
A maintenance contactor pleaded guilty, as a self-employed person, to a charge of failing to ensure persons other than employees were not exposed to risks.
The Court heard the deceased worker was hired to help install winches to lift feeder and drinker lines in duck breeding sheds.
The contactor and the worker were using a front end loader in a shed to install winches on the centre roof truss, five metres above the ground.
The court heard that the contactor was on the ground, chasing ducks away while the worker was in the loader’s bucket preparing the winch motor for fitting.
The contactor then leaned into the cabin and raised the bucket about three to four metres off the ground so the worker could check the fitting on the roof.
The worker fell to the ground and died at the scene. No working at heights training was provided.
WorkSafe is investigating both incidents.
Employers Should Provide Working at Heights Training
WorkSafe Executive Director of Health and Safety Julie Nielsen said the idea of using the bucket of a front end loader as an elevating work platform was seriously flawed.
To prevent falls from height employers can:
- Eliminate the risk by doing all or some of the work on the ground or from a solid construction.
They can also:
- Use a passive fall prevention device such as scaffolds, perimeter screens, guardrails, safety mesh or elevating work platforms.
- A positioning system, such as a travel-restraint system.
- Fall arrest system, such as a catch platform or safety nets.
- Use a fixed or portable ladder or implement administrative controls.
For training and certification options call COVE Training on 61387739000 for more information.
