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Health, Safety & Environmental Bulletin No 059
S Martin – 19 October 2007
Protecting Your Work Area
Analysis of our health & safety statistics shows that the highest proportion of near misses or incidents
identified by our teams on site, and therefore the biggest risk of injury relates to inadequate guards or
barriers being used. Since 2004, incidents or near misses relating to inadequate guards or barriers
equate to 26.1% of all incidents. In 2007, this is currently running at 27.6%.
On my recent site audits, I have watched several teams and tried to take the positives out of each and
am pleased to share best practice with you all.
My recommendations are as follows:-
a) The safest and most visible rigid barrier that you have is your van, so where possible, try to
shield yourself from oncoming traffic by using it as a barrier. By all means feel free to put cones
and tape in front of the van as an added visible warning.
b) Where possible, if you need to build a mobile scaffold tower, try to build it away from the line
of main traffic flow (as shown below), where it is safer and causes less site disruption.
