Heard a safety guy say something that stuck with me

Overheard a safety inspector at the yard last Tuesday telling a green operator never to trust a load that looks balanced from the cab. Said he's seen three tip-overs this year alone because the operator skipped the hand signal check. Made me think about how many times I've done the same thing on a tight schedule. You guys have a rule you follow no matter how far behind the job is?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugomurray26d ago

Three tip-overs this year is a nothing statistic without context. That could be one busy yard or a guy who just started last Tuesday himself. I've been doing this 15 years and I can count on one hand the times I've had a load shift bad enough to actually flip something. Most of those safety guys have never run a machine past lunchtime. They see one thing go wrong and act like it happens every day. If you know your equipment and take it slow on the first lift you can tell by feel if something's off.

sean_torres7126d ago

Used to roll my eyes at the old heads who talked about "feeling" a load, but @hugomurray you kinda nailed it here. Had a guy on my crew last month who flipped a skid steer just backing off a flatbed cause he forgot to lower the forks. That's not a load shift, that's just being careless. Safety guys love to point to total numbers without asking who was running the machine or what the ground looked like. I've had loads start to feel wrong half a dozen times over the years and caught it every single time cause I wasn't rushing.