On Monday, February 16th, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) of Ireland launched a new vehicle safety campaign in order to raise awareness about the dangers of operating vehicles in the workplace.
Operating vehicles such as forklifts, small trucks and vans is hazardous even if they are run at low speeds. The dangers are still present because the vehicle operators are prone to a sort of “mental switch-off”, due to the constant and repetitive manoeuvring in restricted areas. Workers tend to grow complacent and their attention drops—unfortunately this is when the likelihood of an accident increases.
Despite the fact that vehicles mainly operate in restricted or enclosed areas, pedestrians and co-workers can still be seriously, or fatally, injured. Pedestrians have no physical protection and the guidelines are different from the public highway—people wander and vehicles move erratically (they are often very heavy too, and can cause severe damage).
According to data compiled by the HSA, “last year 28 of the 55 deaths reported to the Authority involved vehicles. Alarmingly the involvement of vehicles in deaths at work increased in 2014 for the first time in 3 years to 54% of the total figures. This is up 13% from the previous 5 year average for 2009 to 2013 of 41%.”
This same sort of mental switch-off can happen on public highways as well, if drivers are fatigued, distracted, daydreaming, or a stretch of road becomes too monotonous.
Most accident could be prevented with simple steps, such as keeping pedestrians as far from vehicle operating areas as is practical, sticking to low speeds when operating these vehicles and, especially, taking care when reversing.
The campaign will be running on radio, press and online.
