How do you create the safe movement of people in the workplace?
Pedestrians are often exposed to a variety of hazards as they move around the workplace.
These hazards can cause: slips, trips and falls; falls from height; collisions with moving vehicles; striking by moving, flying or falling objects; and striking against fixed or stationary objects.
Lets take a look at how these hazards might arise:
Slips, trips and falls
Typical slip hazards include:
- Smooth floor surfaces
- Surfaces that are slippery or wet
- Contamination of a floor with a slippery contaminant
- Frost and ice
Typical trip hazards include:
- Uneven or loose floor surfaces
- Trailing cables
- Objects on the floor
Typical hazards leading to falls from height include:
- Working next to an unprotected edge
- Working on a fragile material above a drop
- Using access equipment
- Using ladders
- Standing on objects to reach high levels
Collisions with moving vehicles, typical hazards include:
- Pedestrian walkways that require pedestrians to walk in vehicle traffic routes
- Pedestrian crossing points
- Exits that open onto vehicle traffic routes
- Areas where people have to work adjacent to moving vehicles
Being struck by moving, falling or flying objects, typical hazards include:
- Automated machinery
- Unsecured objects
- Ejected parts
- Thrown objects
- Loads falling from height during lifting and handling operations
- Objects being dislodged during working at height
- Objects falling from height because of adverse weather conditions or wear and tear
- Toppling of unstable objects
Striking against fixed or stationary objects, hazards include:
- Objects that project into a pedestrian area or route
- Narrow doorways in a pedestrian route
- Low overheads
Control measures for safe movement of people in the workplace
The starting point is to carry out a risk assessment.
A risk assessment covering the safe movement of pedestrians in a workplace should:
- Identify the various hazards that present risk to pedestrians (ad indicated above)
- Identify the groups at risk
- Evaluate the risk by considering existing controls, the adequacy of those controls and any further controls required to reduce the risks to an acceptable level
- Be recorded and implemented
- Be subject to review as the workplace changes, in response to incidents and perhaps periodically
During the risk assessment, it is important to consider the following:
- Normal patterns of movement in and around the workplace
- Predictable abnormal movements such as taking shortcuts and fire evacuations
- Accident history of the workplace that might indicate problem areas
- Impact of adverse weather conditions
- Maintenance requirements
Other control measures to consider to improve the safe movement of people in your workplace include:
- Slip-resistance surfaces
- Spill control
- Drainage
- Designated walkways
- Fencing
- Signs
- PPE
- Information, Instruction, Training and Supervision
- Maintenance of a safe workplace
This is by no means an exhaustive list but the above information should provide you with a solid enough platform in which enough to now go away & improve the safe movement of people in your workplace.