Industry News, News, Safety, Victoria

WorkSafe Victoria targets cranes in safety blitz

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) is urging businesses to promote safety during National Safe Work Month.

WorkSafe Victoria will be conducting a targeted blitz on hydraulic mobile crane operations on construction sites in August.

It follows three serious incidents where heavy machinery at construction sites overturned, landing on houses.

WorkSafe Victoria will be checking for:

  • Licences to perform high risk work
  • Logbooks
  • Service records
  • Crane set up – fully extended and pinned outriggers, bog mats or timbers in place, geo tech report / engineers sign off (if required)
  • Exclusion zones (around the crane and under the load path to destination)
  • If the crane is operating near overhead / underground assets; has it been controlled?
  • For any obvious defects
  • Operational warning devices
  • Where the crane is set up adjacent to a road / rail; is traffic management in place
  • Load charts and manual
  • Appropriate lifting gear being used and within load capacity
  • Lifting gear inspections
  • SWMS

Inspectors will use an on-site checklist based on the above points and will issue prohibition notices upon finding risks to health and safety that aren’t rectified during the visit.

Improvement notices will be issued where instances of non-compliance with occupational health and safety laws are identified.

The Crane Industry Council of Australia (CICA) offers resources and initiatives available at its website.

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