Between the years of 1995 and 1999, there were an average of 362 construction related falls every year. All of those falls resulted in job site deaths. Working construction is not the cushy job that most moms would suggest to their children. The four leading causes of workplace death are not variations of illness, or other physical conditions. Instead the four leading causes of death on construction sites are falls, electrocution, being pinned by an object, and being pinned between two objects.
In many cases incidents like falls are simply a hazard of the job. However, these hazards can and should be minimized. With a little instruction and due diligence, construction sites can be safe working environments.
There are measures that construction companies can take to ensure that their employees are as safe as possible. Most of these measures are mandated by law under OSHA training. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, oversees the safety training at workplaces or all kinds. In the construction businesses, one of the most important safety trainings to pay attention to is the OSHA fall protection training.
Workplace training should include all aspects of preventing falls. Workers should know how to properly construct and maintain scaffolding and other and other fall protection systems. There should also always be guardrails, safety nets and other fall arrest systems in place to minimize the damages caused by a fall.
Construction safety training can help workers avoid the types situations that could lead to fatal results. In particular fall safety training can help construction workers identify and avoid unsafe conditions and dangerous situations. Other safety trainings can include material handling, crane training and crane safety.
It is important that construction workers know the hazards involved in each job, from the very smallest to the especially large. Construction safety courses should include safety training in rigging supplies and crane certification. Typically crane operators are certified to operate the heavy equipment. However, accidents can happen to even the most experienced crane operators, due to failed rigging or failed rigging hardware. This is one reason rigging safety training and rigging certification helps save lives.
With the proper training your job site can work smoothly toward a safer construction site.