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

Updated Jan 2, 2016

grader stepsFalls 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 engineer.

Starting with its cranes, Traylor applied the most rigorous interpretation of the recommendations in OSHA 1926. They beefed up the handrail systems, put fiberglass grip strips on platforms and painted all the leading edges of platforms yellow.

“We drew attention to the hazards if we couldn’t get rid of them,” says Ralph.

The total cost per machine was $3,320 and about six hours of labor, says Ralph. Since implementation the incident rate has gone down and the program has improved morale among the operators, he says, because they know now their incident reporting isn’t falling on deaf ears.

The company will continue to study the feasibility of access point upgrades for other models of equipment.