I’m noticing a helluva lot more flat trailers and trucks fitted with some sort of guardrail, usually a ratchet strap stretched between the headboard and a post, it’s also starting to appear on beavertails with a garden fence post and decorative chain affair. For starters these things look like they may cause more potential for injury than they prevent, secondly they are next to useless when loading plant as the wheels will often be full width of the body or you couldn’t open the door.
Then there are the sites that won’t let you on the back of the vehicle.
I was just wondering how many drivers are / were seriously injured from falling from a truck, the only injury I can think of is our driver who broke his wrist when a handrail on a machine came off in his hand and dropped him to the road. Side rails couldn’t have been used as the machine overhangs the trailer and the cab height would be above any barrier.
I did, Novemeber 2005, resulting in a break in my neck However, I’m as recovered as I’m ever going to be and back at work.
There was as thread at the time, but I can’t find it now.
I currently work out of a major Steel companys site, and these places are H&S’d up to the eyeballs. Sometimes the safety measures are dangerous. But, if the customer says jump, we ask how high?? After all, they’re paying our wages.
Not injured getting off but getting on was mine. Put my hands on the deck and went to leap on, misjudged it though and banged right kneecap hard against the deck side. Hurt like hell couldnt move my leg for a few minutes and nobody about so spent 5/10 mins layed on the deck floor seeing stars!
Havent done it since!
8wheels:
I’m noticing a helluva lot more flat trailers and trucks fitted with some sort of guardrail, usually a ratchet strap stretched between the headboard and a post, it’s also starting to appear on beavertails with a garden fence post and decorative chain affair. For starters these things look like they may cause more potential for injury than they prevent, secondly they are next to useless when loading plant as the wheels will often be full width of the body or you couldn’t open the door.
Then there are the sites that won’t let you on the back of the vehicle.
I was just wondering how many drivers are / were seriously injured from falling from a truck, the only injury I can think of is our driver who broke his wrist when a handrail on a machine came off in his hand and dropped him to the road. Side rails couldn’t have been used as the machine overhangs the trailer and the cab height would be above any barrier.
So is this just another H&Sfor H&S sake idea?
Not “seriously injured” in terms of bone breakages, but I fell backwards off the side of a curtain-side trailer onto the concrete ground and landed on my left side, but my left leg was slightly bent so when my right leg landed on top of it, my calf smashed into the side of my left boot and gave me the most painful bruising I have ever experienced in my entire life. I really shouldn’t have driven at all for the next 4 days as I was in sooooo much pain from the fall, but eventually it subsided and I recovered. But yeah, you can do some serious damage. I think the hand rails and stuff you are on about will only serve to hinder us (as usual). It’s really a common sense and H&S should get it into their thick heads that ACCIDENTS HAPPEN and sometimes there isn’t anyone to “blame”.
I’ve nothing against Health & Safety where practicable but some of these systems seem like a token nod at a problem and look ill thought out. Surely there are times when the job cannot be done without some element of risk involved.
I wonder how effective some of these systems actually are and if you are more likely to fall off because of them or get tangled up. And thinking back I went over the side once after a bit of T32 rolled over under my boot, I’m sure any rail or strap would have made things worse than me falling on to my arse dazed with a heavy length of rebar getting a nice soft driver to land on.
We have platforms which are placed down either side of the trailer. We have to be harnessed to the platform which stops us going off the opposite side of the trailer. They are, obviously very restrictive, and I often get tangled up. I find that the belt becomes worn with regular adjustment for varying sized drivers, its a waistband type harness, and they invariably end up slipping round the ankles. Thus causing the very trip hazard they’re trying to avoid.
They actually give me a feeling of claustrophobia, and i get all hot and bothered, which as you can imagine does not make for safe working.
Also, there is no ‘escape route’ should the platform be moved while attached to it. This has been known to cause injury to the driver.
Still, better all this malarky than the dole queue.
I guess I’m lucky in that most places I go to are by nature of being construction orientated fairly short term so that some of these ideas never get implemented. I can usually use the “well if I can’t get up there, I can’t secure it or unload it” excuse. I’m quite happy to take it away again or leave without the item I’m due to collect. Just sign here to say why I can’t complete this job Suddenly most of these rules disappear.
The major exception is the Olympics which is long term and rigidly inflexible. And impossible to get out of loaded without the right paperwork. I avoid the place and resist the temptation to get banned just to avoid it.
I’ve been doing some plant work recently and the trailers had the set up you described. Now I am in favour of practical, commonsense H&S measures but I had my doubts about these little barriers and also felt they might be more hindrance than help but on balance probably better with than without. Just!
Two years ago I stupidly stepped back too far when on the trailer and fell back. Dumb thing to do asa I should have been facing towards the edge but these things happen. Broke my arm right at the elbow and it still cracks and hurts every day.
I fell off my trailer in early '06, landed on concrete on the back of my head and I’m now on a disability pension. It was my mistake and I don’t reckon H&S would have saved me. I’ve seen some reasonably good H&S in my time, and I’ve seen some really stupid crap, but what the hell, it keeps a few thousand office jobs going for fifteen year olds.
Like many others I’ve done my fair share of roping and sheeting and stripping out tilts, I’ve walked off trailers backwards and had tilt boards hit me on the head and countless other things that would now cause all kinds of HES issues, most of us did, I was lucky, I’m still here to tell the tales, at the time I was probably more worried about messing up my hair, but I’m sure there were others that were not so lucky, breaking bones and sustaining injuries that stopped them from ever working again, even people being killed, it’s the law of averages, there’s only so much you can do about it, all the barriers in the world won’t stop things from going wrong.
However, I’m as recovered as I’m ever going to be and back at work. 
Suddenly most of these rules disappear.