Heavy Equipment Safety – The 60 Second Safety Check From Inside The Cab

Heavy equipment safety is vitally important to the smooth running of any work site. Let’s face it, heavy equipment machinery are generally large rather cumbersome vehicles that are capable of doing a lot of damage when something goes wrong, or in the wrong hands. Workplace safety has a number of areas that operators need to be aware of. There are the work practices, in other words, how you use your heavy equipment. There are maintenance issues such as ensuring that each unit of heavy equipment is inspected and serviced according to a schedule.

The most important person when it comes to heavy equipment safety is the operator. Whilst safe operations are obvious, there are tasks that need to be completed, before an operator starts the engine. External walk around inspections are important. An operator can visually inspect all working components (including tires and tracks) for wear and tear and developing problems. A heavy equipment operator also needs to complete a quick safety check from inside their cab. The following video from Caterpillar demonstrates an internal safety check.

An internal safety check like the one demonstrated only takes sixty seconds. Failing to do so can lead to serious problems, including serious injury and death to both the operator and those working around them. Our society now demands that workers observe OSHA practices whilst in the workplace. Legislators have listened and have made safety training a compulsory component of most training programs, no matter what type of workplace.

When it comes to heavy equipment, safety training, is not just a requirement, it’s a set of skills that are designed to protect operators from serious injury. Ironically, once trained, most operators go through the sixty second internal safety check almost on auto pilot – it becomes second nature to them – and so it should.