Tag: worker safety: Page 2

Safety

Falls claim the lives of 3 construction workers in 3 week span

Three construction workers on separate sites in the northeastern U.S. were killed by falls in a three-week span between mid-January and early February with two of the incidents occurring on the same day. On Jan. 14, an unidentified construction worker was killed in Philadelphia after a fall into the Delaware River. Crews had been working […]

February 29, 2016

Roadbuilding

Work zone flagger killed after being struck by a vehicle in New Hampshire

A died Friday shortly after a vehicle struck him in a New Hampshire construction zone near Fitzwilliam. According to the Keene Sentinel, the flagger was working at a construction zone on Route 12 as crews did work on high-tension power lines early Friday morning. There was snow on the road when the vehicle struck the driver. Police responded to the […]

January 25, 2016

Safety

Safety Week Lesson 6: 3 quick safety breaks each day ups awareness, slashes incidents

Although there were no injuries, excessive equipment damage and rising safety incidents had begun to take away from the bottom line at AECOM’s Black Thunder Mine in Wright, Wyoming. Management convened a group to investigate the incidents and when they did, one fact stood out prominently, says John DePoorter, equipment manager. Almost all the incidents […]

January 4, 2016

Safety

Safety Week Lesson 5: Complacency on articulated dump truck rollovers gets a rude awakening

Articulated trucks, because of their design and the uneven terrain they work in, have a habit of rolling over. Don Swasing, chief operating officer at Schlouch Inc., knew this, but was bothered by the fact that some number of rollovers were considered inevitable. There was a lot of complacency, he says, and that was unacceptable—the […]

January 1, 2016

Safety

Safety Week Lesson 4: Equipment mods cut rate of slips, trips and falls

Falls from equipment are the number-one source of injuries in the heavy construction arena. Traylor Bros. wanted to do something about it. Despite good access systems on most OEM equipment, Traylor Bros., fleet managers thought they could do better. The company researched the relevant regs in the OSHA 1926 standard, says Adam Ralph, fleet maintenance […]

December 31, 2015

Safety

Safety Week Lesson 3: Driver’s tip leads to lighting overhaul of yard

Zero-dark thirty is a time of day all too familiar to construction workers. And at Schlouch Inc., when the day begins in total darkness the equipment yard is an area where dozens of vehicles and people may be rushing around to get the day started. When a truck driver casually mentioned to Kevin Reimert, fleet […]

December 30, 2015

Safety

Safety Week Lesson 2: Information campaign stops frozen air horn danger

At Traylor Bros., Jason Ruggles, shop manager, heard that in winter truck drivers were putting frozen air horns on the dash of their pickup trucks to warm them up. This can cause the gas in the can to pressurize to the point where the can explodes. Not only would this tear up the cab, it […]

December 29, 2015

Workforce

Safety Week Lesson 1: RFID card reader prevents unauthorized machine access

Tim Truex, midsize equipment and electrical manager for Kokosing Construction wanted a way to prevent unauthorized operators from starting equipment, especially cranes, aerial work platforms, forklifts and CDL vehicles. When site supers get in a rush to move something, there is a temptation to let untrained workers get in the crane or telehandlers for a […]

December 28, 2015

Workforce

Worker survives being impaled through chest by rebar

The witnesses and others who helped save Casey Zawojski’s life after a terrifying accident on a Florida jobsite are crediting divine intervention, and it’s easy to see why. According to a report from the Ocala Star-Banner, Zawojski, a 20-year-old painter, was doing prep work from a ladder at a residential jobsite when the ladder fell. […]

November 25, 2015

Safety

Falls claim the lives of 3 construction workers in one weekend

According to reports from across the U.S., three construction workers were killed in one weekend earlier this month, each of them in a fall. One of two deadly accidents on Oct. 17 occurred when a 53-year-old worker fell 50 feet while working inside a smokestack on the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut. According to a […]

October 29, 2015

Safety

Compactor operator killed in machine rollover on Mississippi jobsite

A worker was killed earlier this month in an equipment rollover in Mississippi. WHBQ TV reports 35-year-old Antonio Thompson was working on a residential jobsite at a new subdivision in Southaven when the accident occurred around noon on October 13. According to a report form WMC TV, co-workers say Thompson was operating a soil compactor near the […]

October 28, 2015

Safety

Retaining wall collapse kills worker near San Diego

A retaining wall collapse claimed the life of a construction worker earlier this month near San Diego. According to reports from Fox 5, 56-year-old Kenneth Schultz was killed while compacting dirt in a drainage channel at the site for a future FedEx distribution center in Oceanside the morning of October 13. As Schultz worked, a […]

October 27, 2015