Page 424 - Xmo Strata - Bulletin Archive

Health, Safety & Environmental Bulletin No 178

S Martin – 18 February 2010

Preparation and Job Planning

As part of sharing lessons learnt, Andy and Todd Wyer, who are diligent Xmo workers with good
safety awareness, have agreed to me sharing a potential incident and lesson learnt by them when
audited on a site recently.

Shortly before the job was due to start, their company van broke down and they loaded the equipment
that they thought they would need into a hire van, but omitted to include the trestles that they use to
make a work platform.

Wanting to get the job done for our customer on time and not incur any additional costs, they decided
to use 2 barriers on which they rested a plywood board to make a suitable work surface. Whilst the
platform was convenient, at the right height and relatively stable, it was not designed to be load bearing
and was an example of equipment being used for a purpose for which it isn’t designed. The incident
was addressed at the time and new trestles were purchased locally, as shown in the ‘before’ and ‘after’
photographs below.

If we always ask “what’s the worst thing that could happen?” – In this case there was the potential for
someone who was unaware to rest a heavy load on the makeshift bench and cause it to collapse and
hurt someone.

Please remember that planning how you do a job is as important as continually undertaking last minute
risk assessments throughout the duration of your day.

I am pleased to say that no incident occurred, no-one was hurt, customer was very supportive and Andy
and Todd are happy to share the lesson learnt with others.