The latest Global Safety Alert relates to a tragic incident involving operations outside of the EMEA Region, where a truck mixer and cyclist collided as the vehicle turned at a junction, resulting in the death of the cyclist.
Previous similar incidents prompted driver training programmes to raise awareness of the risks to more vulnerable road users, the fitment of additional safety features to vehicles, and support for educational programmes in schools and with the wider public…this incident reminds us of the value of maintaining these efforts.
Please discuss the Alert with your team, particularly employed and contract drivers, and take the time to discuss the importance of ensuring vehicles are fitted with all necessary safety features, which should be checked daily as part of the inspection regime, and ensuring drivers remain alert to vulnerable road users, especially at junctions, when making turns and during times of congested traffic.
Finally, as cyclists, we can all help look after ourselves by avoiding cycling alongside large goods vehicles, and by using lights where necessary, wearing high visibility clothing, and also by using a cycling helmet to reduce the potential for incidents and injury.
This Global Safety Alert can be found at the end of this document and on the UK News download page here. Please display the Alert on all workplace notice boards.
Cemex Global Protocols require all Fatal Alerts to be communicated and managers to capture the signature of employees and contractors to confirm they have received and understood the information and the control measures they need to adopt. In addition, operations are invited to observe a one-minute silence in memory of the deceased at the time of discussing a Fatal Incident Safety Alert.
Safety Alert from Israel
Our colleagues in Cemex Israel have kindly shared the attached Alerts relating to three High Potential incidents (HiPos) in their concrete operations. Thankfully, they provide an opportunity to learn without people suffering serious injuries, but they could so easily have resulted in fatalities.
As you will see from the first Alert, a contract Driver crossed in front of another vehicle at the washout bays to reach the controls for the water supply, when the vehicle pulled forward and knocked him to the ground. Immediate learning points include the layout of the work area, which encouraged drivers to cross in front of other vehicles, items on the dash obscuring the second driver’s view, lack of full hi vis PPE, and a failure by the second driver to check it was safe to pull forward.
Neither driver reported this first incident and, as you will see, an hour later the driver of the truck was involved in a second incident, where his vehicle struck an elderly woman on a pedestrian crossing. In addition to the earlier learning points, regarding the obscured view and the need to check it is safe before moving forward, the investigation identified that the driver was not wearing his prescription glasses, which could perhaps have been identified if the first incident had been reported…
The second Alert describes an incident where a contractor suffered fractured ribs when he was struck by a truck mixer at a plant; he had started to carry our repairs to the yard, without authorisation from the manager or segregating the work area from the traffic.
This Safety Alert can be found at the end of this document and on the UK News download page here. Please display the Alert on all workplace notice boards.
Please review these Alerts as appropriate with your teams, taking the time to consider the learning points and whether there are any opportunities for us to improve our controls. They are a good chance to reinforce the need for immediate reporting of HiPo incidents, to review any routine tasks and workplace layouts that present additional risks, to STOP & THINK and Take 5 before starting a task, and to STEP IN and Take 5 Together if you see anyone at risk of injury.