To ensure a safe working environment and avoid accidents, it’s important to understand the most common hazards associated with excavators and how to avoid them. From crushing and entanglement hazards to hazardous materials exposure, excavations can be dangerous to both the operator and anyone nearby. Continue reading to learn how to minimize the risks and keep yourself and others safe.
Working on a machine as big as an excavator has several hazards, but you can easily cope with them with awareness. To help you with that, here’s a list of 6 common excavator operations hazards.
Accidental falls and collapsing
This is the most common excavator operation mistake. Unfortunately, even experienced operators have made this mistake twice or thrice.
Generally, when the excavator clears debris, there is a high chance the load will shift or fall. Therefore, you should train your team to be careful while using excavating equipment, as one tiny mistake can put the operator or nearby pedestrians’ life in danger.
Ask them to mark the entire area and stay clear of the machine. To reduce accidental falls, stack or pile away scattered rubbish from the edge of the trench, and do not leave a running machine with the bucket arm lowered, as a little jostling in the controls can lower the arm and crush anyone underneath it.
Incidental cave-ins
There are also cases where using the wrong trenching technique and unskilled workers performing complicated techniques lead to cave-ins.
