There have been three Safety Alerts, one relating to a lost time injury in the UK, where a contractor fractured his knuckle while using an impact gun to tighten a bolt in a forklift truck engine compartment. The other Alerts relate to two incidents in Europe where tablet batteries have ignited after exposure to sunlight, thankfully without injury.

When discussing the UK Alert with your teams, please consider whether site procedures are suitably robust to prevent a similar incident.  As you will see, in addition to the selection of the wrong tool for the job, there were some aspects where a more robust approach may have helped prevent this incident, including ensuring safe systems of work address relevant hazards and risks, Permit to Work procedures and a Take 5 stop and think approach are followed, contractor inductions are current and, where possible, a designated area is available for vehicle maintenance.

The tablets that caught fire both involved NAVITEL T 700 units, while we don’t believe these are in operation in our vehicle fleet, the Alerts are nevertheless a good reminder of the need to avoid similar units from overheating, a particular risk in direct sunlight, and also visually inspecting the units for damage and using approved accessories, such as battery chargers.

Please review the Alerts as appropriate with your teams and display them on relevant noticeboards.

LOOK AFTER YOURSELF AND EACH OTHER