SAFETY is of paramount importance on construction sites, from wearing the correct personal protection equipment for a particular job to scaffolding being erected in the proper manner.
This is a serious issue as the most recent statistics from the Health and Safety Executive revealed that the number of workers killed in the construction industry last year had increased.
HSE provisional data for the year April 2010 to March 2011, showed the number of workers killed was 50, an increase on the previous year, when 41 died.
These stark figures demonstrate to employers how vital staff training is.
They should also act as a reminder to individuals about their responsibilities regarding conduct and use of machinery on a building site.
But, however much safety messages are hammered home, they can become stale and employees may start to become complacent.
Warning signs can fade into the background and no longer stand out as workers move about a construction site.
Therefore, employers who come up with new and innovative ideas to make a point to individuals, who all have a contribution to make to the safety of a site, are to be commended.
A building site in the North East has hit the headlines in recent days after it erected a sign calling for people coming on to the land to adhere to an nine-and-a-half miles-an-hour speed limit.
Richard Hancock, project manager for Galliford Try, said the signs were part of a site safety initiative and that they “could have put a 10mph speed limit on it and everybody drives past it and ignores it.
“As is obvious from everyone’s interest, by making it nine-and-a-half miles an hour they pay more attention.”
It seems shocking that something like a speed restriction should be so readily ignored, but a recent poll showed speed limits to be the law people most commonly admitted to breaking.
On top of this, research published this week revealed that the average motorist breaks the speed limit 18,000 times during their lifetime.
No doubt, this sign will in time become less eye catching and the company will have to come up with another way of highlighting the site’s speed restriction.
Other companies should follow this lead and look at ways of regularly rejuvenating their safety initiatives to make them noticeable to the workforce.
For more information on Constructing Excellence in the North East, please contact chief executive, Catriona Lingwood, on 0191 374 0233 or catriona@cene.org.uk.
John Nielsen is APS board director and partner at CK21 Consultants LLP