The team in Spain have kindly shared their latest Safety Alert relating to an incident where a long-term contractor on a quarry suffered severe injury as he climbed into a mini loader.

Unfortunately, he started the machine from outside the cab and, as he climbed in a little later he inadvertently raised the bucket arm, trapping one of his legs; he suffered severe injuries to his pelvis and will be incapacitated for at least three months.

You can find the Safety Alert on the UK News download page:  Safety Alert - Spain (758 downloads)

Following the investigation into the incident, the analysis was carried out of mini loaders across the EMEA Region which identified the following opportunities in addition to those to address the unsafe behaviours:

• Prestart Checklists – Ensure all mini loaders owned, hired or contracted have a robust prestart inspection scheme which includes the requirement for a safety bar / safety cut out.
• Safety Bar / Safety Cut Out Override – Where it is possible to override the safety bar / safety cut out, review the need for this override feature and disable it wherever possible so that the safety bar / safety cut out is always operational.
• Machine Age – Review the age / replacement cycle of owned, hired and contracted equipment to ensure it meets current standards. The analysis confirmed that a quarter of the mini loaders in operation are over 15 years old, most of which are company owned.

Please review the Alert with your teams, highlighting the behaviours that put our colleague at risk, and discuss the potential that previous opportunities to STEP IN and Take 5 Together were missed.  Where we have mini loaders in operation please also consider the actions outlined above.

Please also display the Alert on relevant noticeboards.