Tag Archives: heavy equipment disasters

Heavy equipment disasters

Heavy equipment have often been the reason of numerous accidents in a construction site. Nonetheless, they have also been the reason of some major disasters. Accidents are prone t happen but when we talk about disasters, it means quite serious ones. Heavy equipment disasters are not so often but when they do occur, the repercussion could be irreparable. You may find a lot of videos of heavy equipment disasters on internet and they are all real ones and not fabricated. Watching those videos will make you wonder how dangerous heavy equipment disasters can be and you may never want one such thing to ever happen in your site.

Mostly disasters happen when you can’t figure out what could happen next and continue with your act. There have been so many mining disasters that have taken many lives. The operator was not sure how much more to go and he kept doing his job. He did not receive any proper direction from the engineer about the same and things went awry. You may come across many such cases of disasters. In some of the cases, it was also because of poor quality heavy equipment or even outdated ones.

Here was an instance that happened in Houston where a huge pile of concrete slab fell on earth moving equipment that was stranded just next to it. The machine was severely damaged. However, fortunately no one was there inside the machine and therefore there was no loss of life. Had someone been there inside the cabin, he would have died for sure. Now the operator would never know if the crane could no longer carry the slab and will leave it. Such types of disasters are quite seldom in nature but they do happen and the impact of it is quite large and irreversible.

Some tips can be followed to ensure that such type of disasters do not happen in the future.

Keep the heavy equipment under the open sky:-

When you are parking your heavy equipment, make sure that it is parked under the open sky and does not have any heavy object looming over it. There are always chances of things falling down and therefore taking such unwanted risks should be avoided.

Clear communication is important:-

Most of the times, disasters occur due to unclear communication from either side. May be the operator failed to understand or it was not effectively communicated to him. Moreover, during the monsoon or in the winters, things may become very risky and the chances of disaster happening in such occasions increases manifolds. The operator may not find things quite visible and he may take a call that may turn out to be completely incorrect. He may fall in a ditch or may get trapped in mud. Once he gets trapped there, it becomes way too difficult to get the machine out from that. It may require the help of emergency team who will come down with their equipment to get the machine out of it. Therefore, what he should do and what he should not must be communicated very clearly to him.

How to avoid heavy equipment disasters?

We all know that construction equipment or other heavy equipment are extremely dangerous. Construction sites and very prone to fatal accidents and disasters, every worker in such sites have to exceedingly cautious while handling such heavy equipment. It is pertinent for every single one of the employees to follow safety guidelines to avoid potential disasters at all times. Even one second’s ignorance can cost them their life or limbs. Similar other types of accidents construction accidents also take place mostly due to the person’s negligence or usage of faulty instruments.

It has been observed that a large number of accidents are reported every year that take place in construction sites and account for the death or injury of thousands of workers. For these reasons not only does the project owners lose huge sums of money but the employees of these families also suffer from great loss and go through pain. Four construction site accidents were reported in the 2012, all of which took place at the World Trade Centre (WTC) construction project.

So what are the common types of accidents that occur in construction sites?

Classification of construction accidents or heavy equipment disasters can be done on the basis of their severity, whether the economic loss encountered is big or small or if the amount of loss of lives and injuries caused are big or small. It can be caused either due to design ignorance, equipment failures, and worker’s carelessness or simply due to natural disaster causes. On the basis of the location of such heavy equipment accidents they are grouped as and residential building site accidents, tunnel accidents and highway construction site disasters.

Some types of heavy equipment accidents can be listed as:

  1. Ladder Accidents
  2. Saw Blade Accidents
  3. Crane and Truck Accidents
  4. Elevator Accidents
  5. Power Tool Accidents
  6. Welding Equipment Accidents
  7. Scaffolding Failure
  8. Cable and Rope Accidents
  9. Forklift Accidents

To name a few of them other categories may be listed as collapse of building components, labor related disasters, fire and explosions, falling of objects, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) violations leading to disasters etc.

Some labor related disasters can be listed as:

  • Iron Worker Accidents
  • Painter Accidents
  • Brick Layer Accidents
  • Plumber Accidents
  • Carpenter Accidents
  • Union worker Accidents
  • Maintenance Worker Accidents

Based on the project type or location they can be categorized as: –

Parking garage collapse, tunnel construction accidents, highway construction, demolition mishaps, residential building site disasters, bridge building site disasters, excavation accidents etc.

What are the common causes of disasters in sites with heavy equipment?

  • Most commonly accidents involving being struck by tools, equipment or being hit by falling objects usually take place due to insufficient planning of site storage, inadequacy of tool belts to ensure safety while using them, lack of toe boards on scaffoldings.
  • Improper usage of heavy construction vehicles such as cranes, trucks, hoists etc. can also lead to fatal disasters.
  • Certain trenching disasters may place workers in danger of being trapped under soil and rocks, increasing their risk of having asphyxiation, breathing of poisoning fumes and drowning in underground water. Derisory excavation wall support, failure of protective systems, unsuccessful soil inspection and unsafe passage into and out of the trench may generate such kind of construction accidents.