This one involved a construction site in the Auckland CBD. The loading zone was on a blind bend in the road and the hoarding reduced visibility even further. The predominantly shingle surface was not leveled as required in our original Site Safety Survey. It had spilled concrete over it and several deep potholes making it very uneven. There was a lot of badly stacked construction material and scaffolding lying around the edges causing congestion. The end result was there was little room for our drivers to move clear of the vehicle while it was being unloaded - unless they stood out on the road! The crane crew unloaded one of our trucks in the incorrect order and a concrete panel subsequently fell off the trailer and the projecting rebar struck the driver. His injuries put him off work for a year. The subsequent PCBU Review found failings by all 5 PCBU's involved and resulted in a complete rewrite of the transport section of the Worksafe ACOP for precast concrete elements

Problem with equipment coming back from sites. At the sites they are poorly loaded and have to travel back to our depot. The sites struggle to understand how or why they need to load the equipment correctly and the depot struggle to instruct the sites on the correct loading style. The sites seem to forget that the equipment has to travel on motorways and arterial routes, therefore have the potential of causing major issues. A series of guidelines is been adopted but is there a better way?

I'm intrigued as to why we would want to focus on the negative. Should the question not be "What are some great examples of where the risks to pedestrian and drivers is well managed resulting in safe loading/unloading work areas".

I used to work at a manufacturing site where the product would be loaded onto pallets and then the pallets would be 'pushed' down ramps by a Forklift into the truck loading area. One day the forklift came off the end of the ramp and was perched perilously on the edge. There was no 'safe' zone for truck drivers either and on one occasion a truck driver broke his finger when a forklift 'nudged' the curtain on the side of the truck and the curtain bar hit the driver's finger by the Forklift driver. There was also no canopy in the loading area so the area was open to the elements. Some days the forklifts would skid around on the wet tarseal. So a dangerous environment all round to say the least!

Driving down hill towards the The Terrace in Wellington. I stopped when I saw a pipe being lifted off the back of a truck by a construction site fixed crane. Had I not stopped I would have driven in to it. There were a couple of people (not in high vis stopping) people and guiding the operator.

Every day of the week trucks are loaded and unloaded at ‘unsafe’ sites where there are unsafe conditions and unsafe behaviours. Some sites are untidy junkyards, some have low overhead wires, some are congested and others have people wandering around. Plant and equipment is often shonky. There are unguarded machinery and substandard forklifts and loaders. Some unloading areas are down private shared lanes and paper roads where people remove barriers and where kids scoot and skateboard through as a shortcut on their way to school. My observation is that the further out of a city you go the more ‘relaxed’ the site is.

I like to ensure that drivers know that they are in control of their work area and if a driver reports an unsafe site I will follow it up. The follow up is a ‘PR’ exercise. And, with the aid of my two ears, two eyes and one mouth usually results in a simple one/two-page shared document. The document covers the 3 Cs (overlapping duties) and outlines the driver’s safety responsibilities and the sites safety responsibilities. Done professionally most people appreciate the visit.

Believe me there’s still a HUUGE amount of work to be done in this space.

A homeless person sleeping in a rubbish skip was tipped into a rubbish truck. The person driving the truck noticed movement seconds before the crusher was activated, which could have resulted in a fatality or serious injury.

Maybe once one knows the range of potential risks/what could go wrong from previous incidents, then one has real data to design a stronger individual risk control program rather than generic blurb.

we have some separate areas for that like a small compound for that what we do there? we just de attached the trailer with trucks we mostly use Ford and Ram truck as i have Ram 1500 truck which i use for car towing service, and the worker just unloads and load the stuff and we attach again and start the job.

Doubt and always feeling uncomfortable with performance will drive better safety outcomes.