Farmers fined $40k by OSH for quad bike accident

[MattRSK]

ive had the site safe pasport for about the last 6 yrs havent been asked to show it to any one yet.

+1 .

[duckonin]

Workers .."safety in the work place"...So the story goes this morn on the new's, a council contractor working on a warf or jetty tied himself to his ladder so he would not fall in the drink, more than likely an OSH requirement, but he did fall in the tide, ladder and all and yes he did drown.. Now who would want to tie themselves to any ladder?

[jono035]

Workers .."safety in the work place"...So the story goes this morn on the new's, a council contractor working on a warf or jetty tied himself to his ladder so he would not fall in the drink, more than likely an OSH requirement, but he did fall in the tide, ladder and all and yes he did drown.. Now who would want to tie themselves to any ladder?

I thought you were supposed to tie the ladder to what it was up against, not yourself to the ladder??

I worked on a big beef cattle block when I was living up north and having to put a helmet on every time we got on the quad would have been a pretty serious pain in the ass. I also don't know how much good it would have done given that the hairiest moments were things like spraying from the quad on steep hills and going through drainage ditches etc. For on-road riding I could see the benefit...

[Patrick]

I wonder.... was there no helmet at all?

Or was the rider a non ATGATT type......? And if he was a non ATGATT, then fair enough.... it's always someone elses fault.....

Workers .."safety in the work place"...So the story goes this morn on the new's, a council contractor working on a warf or jetty tied himself to his ladder so he would not fall in the drink, more than likely an OSH requirement, but he did fall in the tide, ladder and all and yes he did drown.. Now who would want to tie themselves to any ladder?

Read about that one too. That was a weird one.... Still don't understand that..... Tie the ladder so it doesn't fall, but tie yourself to the ladder???????

[ynot slow]

When I worked on a MAF research farm,we never used helmets(in 1984-86),and had CT110,AG175,and yammy trike which towed a small trailer.The amount of times we rode like idiots chasing bulls or cows along the races to stop them mixing with other herds if they escaped meant we should've crashed heaps when riding on metal races.But mostly we fell off in paddocks at slow speeds.One guy did fall off,was picking out gravel for weeks from his knee,overalls don't protect much.He was going about 35km,middle of summer.

I really believe the 10' tall and bullet proof syndrome is to blame,even towing dads 4x4 with 15bales of hay on the trailer was tricky from paddock to barn at haymaking time,and with 75 or so bales to get in at 7.30pm,trying to beat darkness,a couple of times it was easy to lose the lot,i.e flip due to speed and incline of hill,only took about 5 loads to finish,but the 2nd to last load meant riding at awkward angle,and I was ready to jump off 4x4 uphill.And had fed out same paddock a few times,but with less of a load so thought I knew the best route.

[davereid]

I thought you were supposed to tie the ladder to what it was up against, not yourself to the ladder??

I have been told, but I can't confirm that the worker was on a ladder that was a permanent structure - not a stepladder.

I contract in this industry myself, and was very interested to see what had happened, but it has proved very hard to get any facts.

[marty]

I have been told, but I can't confirm that the worker was on a ladder that was a permanent structure - not a stepladder.

I contract in this industry myself, and was very interested to see what had happened, but it has proved very hard to get any facts.

The fixed ladder would make sense if it was off the side of a wharf, but no quick release carabiner?

If the ladder attachment was suspect, someone's gonna wear some big fines!

[jono035]

I have been told, but I can't confirm that the worker was on a ladder that was a permanent structure - not a stepladder.

I contract in this industry myself, and was very interested to see what had happened, but it has proved very hard to get any facts.

Ahhh, well that'd make more sense! So I guess for the ladder to go in with him it would have had to have been dodgy, then broken off (or he was in process of cutting it off while attached )

Any time we were working on heights or over water we'd have a full harness on with a shock-pack + lanyard. The emphasis was always on clipping it somewhere that would actually hold your weight and not follow you down... We were often using them in situations where rescue was pretty much impossible in a timely manner so were told to use them in such a way that you couldn't go over the edge even if you tried... When I left they were just starting to get anally retentive and using 2 lanyards so that one would always remain clipped... More a cover-their-arse thing than anything I guess, make it completely impossible for someone to fall off unless they were at fault somehow.

For going up and down internal ladders there was a steel cable running between me and the ladder that was strained up and had a follower thing that you could clip on that allowed you to go up or down slowly, but as soon as you got too quick it'd lock.

I don't know if that is specific to places that do work at heights though?

[MarkH]

Just heard on the radio a farmer has been fined about $40k by OSH when an employee on a quad bike rode into a wire going across the paddock.

OSH determined that the lack of a helmet was a contributing factor to the injuries incurred (as opposed to the accident), and that by not wearing a helmet the farmer had failed to provide a safe working environment.


I guess next the farmer will be having to put high viz markers on the fence - just to make sure.

It seems OSH did something useful here - hopefully helmets will be worn in future on this farm.

Back around 1986 my best mate's 15 year old brother left school for a farm job, he didn't wear a helmet either - the funeral of a 15 year old is not a very happy occasion.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

Are we that shallow...

Bloody oath we are...