Dive Brief:
- Contractors can prevent struck-by injuries by creating a “sphere of safety” panelists said at a Nov. 4 webinar hosted by CPWR — The Center for Construction Research and Training.
- The panelists described the approach for protecting workers from falling or swinging objects and reassessing those risks as work shifts.
- A “sphere of safety” refers to looking beyond the immediate task to hazards such as loose material on the floor above, a machine’s blind spots and a load that could shift on the far side of a trailer.
Dive Insight:
Struck-by incidents accounted for about 17% of construction fatalities and 21.5% of nonfatal injuries between 2011 and 2021, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Federal data groups struck-by deaths under broader categories, including contact and transportation incidents. In 2024, the most recent data available, 161 of the industry’s 1,034 fatalities were classified as contact incidents and 244 as transportation incidents, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Just because things are neatly stacked doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t fall over,” said Travis Weber, panelist and senior director of environmental, health and safety at Centennial, Colorado-based Haselden Construction.
He recommended tethering tools, covering openings or installing debris netting, securing stored materials against wind and keeping workers clear of the far side of a trailer during unloading. Those practices are part of Associated General Contractors of Colorado’s Stop the Drop campaign.
On a Texas data center project with DPR Construction, Sundt Construction set up portable barriers to keep vehicles away from workers entering and leaving a lunch tent, according to panelist Reese Fortin, district health, safety and environment manager for Sundt. Fortin also described using fencing to mark pedestrian routes and clips to secure drywall to framing when sheets must be stored upright.
On solar projects, Sundt uses autonomous pile drivers with cameras and collision avoidance technology designed to stop the equipment if someone enters its operating zone, Fortin said. She recommended marking off robotic work areas with flagging and signs and putting up fencing where conditions warrant it.
Keeping workers clear of moving equipment starts with an internal traffic control plan, said Travis Parsons, director of occupational safety and health at the Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund of North America.
“Sketch where workers, delivery trucks and equipment will go, identify crossings and eliminate backing where possible,” he said. “Use signs to mark routes and brief subcontractors and drivers when the layout changes.”
Operators and trained spotters should walk the route together before a move, identify blind spots and agree on how they’ll signal a stop, said panelist Jay Hocutt, a heavy equipment program manager at Oak Ridge, Tennessee-based environmental contractor United Cleanup of Oak Ridge. He favors radios so spotters can stay farther from moving equipment.
“If communication drops or someone unexpectedly enters the work zone, stop,” he said.
Hocutt said crews should revisit the need for a spotter at each briefing and whenever conditions change. At the company, workers who call a halt can earn a recognition coin.
“We actually celebrate when somebody stops work because that’s what we want them to do,” he said.
