Health & safety bulletin
Dangerous Incidents
12th March 2009
Please see below self explanatory extract from a Global Alliance bulletin.
From: Martin Rackley Global Alliance HSSE Manager
Ref No: C/09 25/02/2009
The last few weeks have seen a number of very serious incidents occur on our sites. Unless contractors take more responsibility for their own safety and for those around them we are heading for some major injuries or worse!
THE LIST BELOW IS JUST A SAMPLE. THERE ARE MORE.
- A sign fitter working on a BP Dealer site balancing on the handrails of his working platform at an approx height of 4.5m.
- A refrigeration cabinet installer putting his hands under a unit weighing 250kg while it was lifted by his mate via a lifting bar. It slipped and he nearly lost his fingers.
- Steel erectors walking from a scissor lift onto a canopy roof unattached to any fall arrest until they had walked 3m to an existing safety line.
- Engineers working in chambers. When finished they moved on and left several covers off and unprotected. This was on a busy construction site with 25-30 other contractors working close by.
- An approved GA Principal Contractor working on a BP Dealer site (none Alliance work) had deep and unsupported excavations next to a public highway. In addition to the risk for anyone working in the hole, there was a danger of the MID fuel sign falling into it.
- Two of our construction sites have had all works stopped by our Project Managers due to no clear access routes, poor separation of machines and site pedestrians and missing PPE.
- Works suspended on pipe replacement site when ground workers found in trench with exposed and unprotected reinforcement steel. I COULD GO ON AND ON!
WE ARE DEALING WITH ALL THESE INCIDENTS BUT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. ALL THE WARNING SIGNS ARE THERE. WE CANNOT GO ON GIVING WARNINGS AND ACCEPTING WELL INTENDED EXCUSES. ALL OUR STAFF WILL ADOPT A ZERO TOLERANCE APPROACH TO SERIOUS HSSE BREACHES. IF OUR INVESTIGATIONS HIGHLIGHT GROSS NEGLIGENCE WE WILL REMOVE INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIES FROM OUR SITES PERMANENTLY.
DON'T PUT YOURSELF AT RISK - KEEP SAFE, KEEP YOUR JOB AND GO HOME IN ONE PIECE!