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Heavy equipment crashes has claimed many lives and we are yet to do something concrete about this. These sorts of crashes happen more often in small construction sites where the work is in charge of small time contractors who are not interested in spending any money in buying modern heavy equipment nor want to recruit competent heavy equipment operators. These crashes are somewhat taints the overall picture of the construction industry.
On one hand, people consider this business as one of the most profitable business and on the other hand, it is also being frowned at due to sheer negligence on the part of the contractors and other co-workers. Some accidents happen due to poor quality of heavy equipment, some happen due to experienced men working on the machine and some happen due to negligence adopted by people working on the jobsite. Overall, the ultimate sufferers are the men who work in such a risky environment and are prone to become victim of such a fatal crash.
One such crash happened with an earth moving excavator which was working next to a pond mistakenly went inside it and got submerged in it. The operator died in this incident. These types of crashes have become quite common but this can’t be used as an excuse. There is a human life that is getting lost in this process and it is high time that people start taking such crashes very seriously and also take preventive actions to avoid them in the future. Incidents like workers getting crushed to death have also come to the forefront. The pattern of accidents may not be common but the incidents are becoming rampant and the need of the hour is to ensure that mechanisms are put in place to curb such accidents and if at all they occur then there should be enough resources to tackle the problem and get the man out of the death trap.
Some learning that we can take from such accidents is to refrain from recruiting incompetent operators. They can post direct threat to their lives as well as to the life of others. Hiring inexperienced operators is still manageable as he can be given the right kind of training and can be used as a useful resource. You can figure out a competent and an incompetent operator from his attributes and his attitude towards work. This should give you a clear indication whom you should keep and whom should you fire.
Also make sure that you do not give lot of stress to the operator. Let him work in a comfortable environment. He is bound to make mistakes if he is under any sort of stress and any small error on his part can cost you dearly. While the heavy equipment is on a roll, clear instruction should be given to other workers to not work around it. They can move to a different place or do something else but not to wander around the machine. Following these steps can only minimize the incidents of heavy equipment crashes and bring down the figures of death toll on the jobsites.
