The waste management and recycling industry had a poor health and safety record and action must be taken to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries that occur throughout the industry. Businesses should rely more on technology to help prevent accidents within the recycling industry.
It might be useful to share a few that are on the market:
– The reversing alarm now comes in many guises. You can record your own messages or even have curlews calling out or white noise if your neighbours are a problem.
– Reversing Cameras are now cheaper than ever and easy to fit. Did you know that they now come as a wireless option. This can be very useful for monitoring plant or blind spots across the site from the vehicle cab.
– 360 degree cameras can be used to give a view looking down onto your vehicle. They are worth trialling but beware as they work best on very large equipment. On smaller equipment the cameras struggle to get a wide enough picture and this can then become stretched. If the cameras get knocked then the digital stitching required can be moved and this can lead to blind spots. Not what you need on a system to be relied upon.
– There are various makes of radar brakes that can work very well on loading shovels and LGV’s. They work by emitting a radar beam out of one or two receivers on the rear of the vehicle. They then will allow the vehicle to reverse up to a pre-set distance of an obstacle. As soon as that limit is reached the vehicle will automatically apply the brakes and prevent the vehicle from going backwards. There are now various personnel type shields that can be retro-fitted into a variety of different applications such as in-feed conveyors or loading shovels and excavators. The personnel or visitor on-site is given a lanyard to wear, this can then double up as their visitor badge or even time card. The machinery on-site is fitted with a 360° radar unit.
If there are any down sides with these systems it will be that the drivers can either learn ways of getting around the system using overrides or they become complacent and rely on them rather than using their mirrors and actually looking.
Source: Organics Recycling Group. Renewable Energy Association.