Lifting equipment- a license to kill – When lifting equipment is misused or mishandled they can become a danger to all around. Allowing an untrained person to operate the machine is like handing out a licence to kill. Safety hazards that can be associated with it can cause serious damage to both equipment and property and even come along with injuries and loss of life.
Machinery in the workplace should be used to escalate productivity and not the rate of incidents and fatalities. It is therefore essential that training is provided for lifting equipment operators and the general employees on the proper handling of equipment to their advantage.
Lifting equipment can be extremely dangerous if it is not handled according to the manufacturer's rules hence; it is important for employers to send their operators to get trained and educated on the hazards associated with improper use of equipment.
Equipment should be adequately serviced regularly to prevent it from malfunctioning while a load is being lifted. Training equips operators with knowledge about how to test or assess equipment before use to establish if they are in a proper and good working condition. This by far will reduce any equipment from being declared a killing device.
Equipment like cranes and forklifts should be inspected adequately before use to break the spell of them becoming a licence to kill. Operators and employees should be trained on the significance of the special features of the equipment so that they do not misuse it and contribute to hazards. Some examples are the use of alert sirens, load limit labels and the use of the start and stop buttons and emergency stops. If all employees are trained to be aware of what is expected of them with regards to handling and behaviour around machinery then they would be less lifting equipment related incidence.
Moving components of lifting machinery can be hazardous to the safety for the operator of the equipment and those around the working site. It is essential that employers ensure that such components are safeguarded with guards ad fences where necessary. However, operators should be trained to enable them to identify guards and fences that longer save their purpose and report them to the relevant authorities. This ensures that operators are equipped with skills to safe-guard their own lives and prevent forthcoming accidents.
The South African Occupational Health and Safety Act states that an employer or user of machinery should be fully aware of the dangers attached thereto and is conversant with the precautionary measures to be taken or observed to obviate such danger. This is knowledge that operators could only acquire through adequate training.
Training services educate operators never to leave equipment that needs constant attention unattended under any circumstance if it is in operation unless he is relieved by a person who is authorised and competent to operate such machinery. Training institutes also arm operators of machinery with skills that enable them to identify a life threatening or unsafe machinery and about the powers vested upon them by the law to halt the operation of that machinery.
It is only when lifting equipment is handled properly and is used according to its specification that it would seize being a licence to kill as it will perform the duties it was designed to do.
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