Tag Archives: cell phone

Heavy Equipment and Texting is a bad combo

We always like to be in touch with our friends and family members but there are times when the medium that you use to stay in touch with them can prove to be fatal. You may say that you are just trying to communicate a simple thing to someone but if you are communicating you should not do anything else other than talking to the person on your cell phone. You can’t be working as well as talking both at the same time. It just does not go well with each other and has every potential possibility to inflict serious injury to you or to someone else.

Most of the accidents happen while the person driving the car is talking to someone and driving at the same time. Now as far as the talk is normal, he has his sight on the road but if he gets to hear something exciting, his attention gets automatically diverted. So you may have your eyes on the road but definitely not your attention. The chances of you bumping someone on the road increase manifolds.

While you are operating heavy equipment in a construction site, you got to be extremely cautious about what you are doing. It has been seen that many experienced operators use their cell phones and keep on texting people while operating the machine. This is a very bad combination.

The operator may be quite experienced and has superb control over the machine but he is still playing with fire by diverting his attention on the cell phone. It has been observed that texting is more dangerous than speaking over the phone. While you are texting, you continuously have to look at the cell phone and therefore you lose your sight on the site. You will not even get to know if something gets on your way and by the time you realize it may be too late for you to control.

According to a research, it has been noticed that while you are texting, your eyes off the road/jobsite increases by 400% and the chances of moving into a different lane is increased by 28%. So one can simply figure out how dangerous it is to text while you are operating the construction equipment. Now the most horrifying detail is that while you are texting, it increases the chance of an accident by 2000%. These statistics unanimously speak one thing. The construction business owners should put a ban on using cell phones while working on the jobsite. The operators may expect some emergency calls but that can be easily dealt by providing the number of the supervisor on duty. So if there is an emergency in the family, they need to call the supervisor and he will inform the operator.

The contractors should also develop a cell phone free policy for all the operators and also construction workers on the jobsite. This will ensure the safety and well-being of all the employees working on the jobsite.

Jobsite safety for cell phone usage

Cell phones have now become an integral part of your lives and there is probably not a single day when you do not make use of your cell phones. Right from staying connected to finding ways on google, it is being used for every small purpose that we can think of. You can get the latest updates of your favorite sport or know about anything going on any part of the world all that is available on your cell phone. Life has become so comfortable with the utility of cell phones but there also lies a danger attached to it. There have been a numbers of accidents and deaths reported of people who were using cell phones and could not detect a possible threat coming towards them. They were so engrossed on their cell phones that they did not realize the threat approaching them and met with an accident that resulted to serious injuries and also caused death to many.

When accidents can become so rampant while you are on the road then imagine how manifolds the danger might increase when the same activity is performed on a construction jobsite. A construction jobsite is a place where accidents happen even when people are aware of their surroundings. Even after keeping their eyes and ears widely open, accidents still occur. Most of the accidents are avoidable and there are very few which are not. Now the main reasons why large number of accidents take place in a jobsite is people not aware of their surroundings and are deeply focused on something that they should not be. The most common is using cell phones.

It has been witnessed that people especially on the construction jobsites uses their cell phones during working hours. Now, some have to use it to communicate with people linked with the job. It may be perhaps part of his job but definitely not at the cost of risking his life. People tend to get lost while talking and are so occupied in the conversation that they forget about what is happening around them and if they are at all standing in front of or beside any substance that can turn into a potential risk to them.

Texting is another dangerous thing that people do on the jobsite. While you are texting something, your entire attention is on the cell phone and you tend to get completely disconnected with the outside world. You try to send some important message but you forget something that is more important than the message and it is your life. While you are talking you someone over the phone you still can see things around and in case if something approaches you, you can swiftly move away but while texting, you have no idea what is going on around you. You can just hear things but can’t see anything other than the stuff you are writing.

The best way out is to create a safe zone for people where they can enter and call people up. Make it a mandate that they can’t use their cell phones anywhere other than those zones. In this way, they can do safe texting.