Falling Objects

Falling objects are a leading cause of death and serious injury in the Construction industry, and also pose risks to the general public in streets adjacent to sites.

Recently, WorkSafe ACT have investigated several notifiable incidents that were all near-misses with the potential to cause serious injury or death of workers.

These incidents resulted from objects being knocked, dropped or blown from structures by the wind. The fallen objects were mostly building materials or tools; in one incident the object landed on the roof of the lunch shed and penetrated the roof inside, narrowly missing workers on their break.

MANAGING THE RISK OF FALLING OBJECTS

Planning is the ideal time to identify risks and how to reduce those as part of a risk control management on a project. For example:

• identify design and fabrication to be installed for perimeter safety screens and source suitable temporary engineering controls such as pedestrian protection gantries, along with incorporating required planning approvals or permits.

Elimination is always the first step to managing hazards and risks. It may be possible to eliminate the need for specific activities to be undertaken at the leading edge of a structure. For example, through planning and maximising pre-assembly to minimise installation of components and handling of hand-tools at the leading edge of the structure.

Where elimination is not reasonably practicable, a combination of control measures is often required to reduce the risk of falling objects. For falling objects, using horizontal containment measures is generally more reliable to prevent or reduce the risk of falling objects, as opposed to vertical containment controls which are only effective after an object has fallen.

The risk controls used at your worksite must be reviewed, and revised as necessary, including:

• before any change is made to the way the construction work is performed, or to the system of work associated with the construction work
• if new or additional information about the hazards becomes available
• if, for any other reason, the control measures do not adequately control the risks, or
• after receiving a request from a health and safety representative.

Objects that have fallen, even if they have not resulted in injury, are notifiable incidents and must be reported to WorkSafe ACT. You can call us on 13 22 81, after hours on 0419 120 028 or email us at worksafe@act.gov.au. You can make a notification using the online form available on the WorkSafe ACT website.