Peter Douglas, executive director of operations at the UK’s largest powered access hire company, Nationwide Platforms, says that companies should be kicked out of IPAF if they do not report every accident and even every near miss. Only that way, he says, can the industry improve safety.
Mr Douglas was speaking at IPAF’s annual conference, held in Rome last week. IPAF represents companies that make, own and use powered access platforms and exists primarily to promote their safe use.
“In my view, accident reporting should be a mandatory condition of IPAF membership,” said Mr Douglas. “Is your company responsible? Does your company want to make the industry safe? If yes, then get on the website and report accidents. If the answer is no, then my view is that you shouldn’t be an IPAF member.”
Mandatory reporting of accidents is not currently IPAF’s policy. The federation initiated its accident reporting database this year, with the aim of putting a figure on the total number of fatal accidents worldwide involving aerial work platforms, and using the findings to further inform its training and safety programmes.
In his presentation, Mr Douglas also revealed accident statistics at Nationwide over the past three years. Delivery drivers were the biggest concern, he noted.
Near misses should also be reported, he argued, and not just serious accidents, because near misses indicate the most common risky behaviours. Reducing the number of near misses and minor accidents will gradually lead to reducing the number of more serious and fatal accidents, he said.
In line with the conference theme of analysing and reducing accidents, IPAF technical officer Chris Wraith urged the industry to report accidents at www.ipaf.org/accident and help save lives. IPAF called on all manufacturers, rental companies, contractors and users to report any known fatal and serious accidents involving aerial work platforms (AWPs) worldwide and all known accidents involving AWPs in the UK. Information entered into the database is kept strictly confidential and is solely for the purposes of analysis and improving safety, IPAF said.
Around 35 companies have registered to use IPAF’s accident database, although the numbers actually reporting accidents was still small, Mr Wraith said. IPAF is aware of four fatalities worldwide involving platforms that have happened this year.
Mr Wraith said that understanding why accidents happen is key to changing risky behaviours in the field. “I used to bend the rules and ignore authority,” he said of his early operator experience as a lorry driver, before his management role in health and safety. In a closer analysis of a handful of recent accidents in the UK, he noted that time pressure was often the cause of the accidents. In each case, the operators were under time pressure to complete a job, leading them to take shortcuts that in the end proved fatal.
Ending his presentation with personal anecdotes, he said, “Every accident is one too many. It is time to cut through the myths and misunderstandings. Log on and start reporting accidents. We have a system here, but it needs your help to help us save lives.”
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