NIOSH issues warning on dangers of garbage trucks
Fatalities warrant additional precautions
Garbage trucks and paper baling machines pose special risks to workers and require immediate attention from occupational safety professionals, according to special warnings issued recently by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Cincinnati.
Employers may be unaware of or complacent about the hazards of riding and working on garbage trucks, NIOSH cautions. Six recent fatalities led the federal agency to urge immediate attention to the problem.
NIOSH has investigated six fatalities related to garbage trucks in the past 10 years, five of which involved workers being run over by the truck while on the collection route or afterward at the landfill. One accident involved a worker who was riding on the back step of the truck because he felt ill and wanted fresh air. He fell off the truck as it was going 35 mph and died from head injuries.
The agency recommends that occupational health providers working with garbage collection workers immediately implement safety training courses or retrain workers in existing safety procedures. In particular, NIOSH says drivers should be trained in recognizing the blind spots around the truck and how to stop the vehicle gradually, without throwing off a step rider. Riding on the steps should be limited to distances of less than 0.2 miles and no more than 10 mph. No one should ride the steps when the vehicle is backing.
NIOSH endorses a long list of safety procedures that may already be in place for most garbage collectors, but it also suggests a few things that can improve safety. Collectors may be issued small air horns to be worn on the belt and instructed to sound them immediately if they fall from the truck. Closed-circuit television systems can be installed to compensate for the driver’s blind spots. The trucks’ body paneling can be extended to make it more difficult to fall underneath the wheels, and sensors can be installed to notify the driver of people in the truck’s path.
Current regulations from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Washington, DC, do not specifically address garbage trucks, but there are applicable industry guidelines and safety standards from the American National Standards Institute.
Paper baler hazards
In a separate warning, NIOSH cautions that some scrap paper balers are inadequately guarded, exposing workers to crushing and amputation hazards. Injuries and fatalities occur when the worker’s body part is caught by the baler ram inside loading and baling chambers.
To ensure that scrap paper balers are adequately guarded, NIOSH advises occupational health providers to check that point-of-operation guarding, such as an interlock gate, prevents workers from placing any body part in the hazardous areas of the baler during operation. Inspection and maintenance of the equipment and safeguarding devices should be stepped up to ensure safe operation, and workers should be retrained in safety procedures.
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