Heavy Equipment Safety Relies Primarily On Awareness

Like many occupations, heavy equipment has a strong emphasis on safety. Like driving a car, most operators develop a safe working habit over time. And just like a car, the real danger is often not what you are doing, but what others are doing around you.

This is generally labelled as safety awareness. Using the car as an analogy again, it’s difficult to be taught road safety awareness since there is so much going around you at any given time. The same is true on a construction site. Being able to develop that safety awareness is as equally important as learning to operate your heavy equipment. If you’re accident prone, no matter how good you are digging trenches, or moving earth, you won’t have a long career in the industry.

Construction sites are a real hub of activity. There are people moving around everywhere; trucks and other vehicles constantly coming and going; cranes constantly raising and lowering loads, and heavy equipment like yours trying to maneuver through and around what is often described as organized chaos. To be successful, you require either eyes in the back of your head, a sixth sense, or a strongly developed sense of awareness – the ability to quickly look around you and to take it all in. Not only do you take it all in, but you factor it into your decision making.

We only ever hear about the serious accidents that occur involving heavy equipment. Here’s a little known fact – 95% of heavy equipment operators work year after year without ever having a serious accident. They will have minor accidents, but then, almost everyone has had a minor incident with a car. If you can develop a sense of awareness while operating heavy equipment, you’ll have a long and safe career. Heavy equipment training will give you the skills required to operate your equipment. We can also give you all the safety knowledge required to stay safe. Awareness is something that comes with time and experience.