Construction Equipment Safety: A Case Study of a Close Call

Technology Integration in Action

The Problem

PacifiCorp, a utilities company, used back-up alarms and side mirrors on their big equipment but still experienced near-accidents at the work site. The site supervisor decided to be proactive about blind-spot safety before one of the close calls became an actual accident.

The Research

Les Cox, the coal preparation plant manager at PacifiCorp, searched industrial backing safety websites, contacted the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and other government agencies and talked with local safety system dealers to find effective solutions for blind-spot safety. He decided to combine a camera and monitor system with a pulser-radar object-detection system.

The Implementation

The vendor installed the systems and met with the crew for on-site training. “The system was pretty simple to explain to the operators. They grasped the idea behind combining an audible warning they received from the object-detection radar system with indicators that were overlaid on the in-cab monitor quickly and have embraced the safety tools completely,” Cox says.

The Payoff

A little over one year later, PacifiCorp reports zero accidents and a reduction in close calls.

A PacifiCorp operator shared a story about an accident he avoided due to the technology integration: He had been pushing coal with a dozer for several hours without another person or vehicle in sight. Unknown to the dozer operator, a contractor began working on the other side of the large coal pile in a skid steer. Once the skid-steer operator finished his work, the dozer operator decided to save time as he left the site by driving over the coal pile instead of safely around it.

The operator put the dozer in reverse and started backing up without any concern. Suddenly, an audible warning alarm sounded in his cab. He stopped the dozer and looked at the monitor. Right behind him, he saw the skid steer within inches of the dozer, which validated the warning he had received from the object-detection radar system. The operator believes he would have hit the skid steer and most likely killed the contractor if he had not been alerted.

In this instance, the back-up alarm worked, but the skid-steer driver did not hear it over his own engine. Without the radar’s audible warning to the driver, a fatality would have occurred. At a minimum, the combination of these two systems averted an injury, but it most likely saved a life.

Construction Business Owner, September 2011

For more updated information and perspectives on jobsite safety, please see the following articles: 

Enhancing Safety & Efficiency on the Jobsite
5 Essential Camera Features for Jobsite Equipment