Is this the last posting for the year, I guess it is.
The title line is in reference to some people who were removing tree limbs from above streets. This work was being done in an effort to allow emergency vehicles to drive on the streets without hitting a tree limb. Fire trucks are the main vehicles that might hit a limb.
I sat outside and watched these workers for a while and observed a few safety concerns and the fact that one of the workers could have been a lot more efficient, and probably not as tired when he left work at the end of the day. Photo to follow.
The pay loader has a safety cage on the front. A person gets into the safety cage, has a safety harness on, used a gas powered pole chain saw, and cuts the limbs.
The man standing below the safety cage on the ground picks up the limbs and puts them in the chipper.
Safety concerns; the gas powered chain saw is not secured to the safety cage, it could be dropped on the person below.
The person cutting the limbs does not look down before each cut, limb could hit person on the ground.
Person on the ground is picking up limbs while the person in the cage is running the pole chain saw cutting limbs, he could get hit by a falling limb.
Person in cage does look for vehicles driving on the street prior to cutting a big limb. They do not have a person in the street watching for traffic as the big limbs are cut. The person in the cage began a cut, and a mini-van came around the corner past the workers as the big limb was being cut.
Person on the ground walks under the cage while it is raised.
They knocked a mail box down when a limb fell on the mail box.
Efficient work practices; the person on the ground attempts to clean up the area when the equipment moves to the next tree. This person picks up some debris both hands full, walks to the chipper tosses the debris in and goes back for another couple hands full. I got tired watching this person waste time doing this. If he has something to put the small debris in, he could carry it all in one trip. I really wanted to show him how to work in a more organized and easier manner, but I didn’t. There is more debris on the street now, than before they started.
Three people, a dump truck with chipper, a pay loader and a pickup truck, they started early morning, went down one side of our block and back up the other side, and made it half way up the next block, one day’s work. Is that efficient?
They could have cut the limbs quicker if they were backing the pay loader, then the dropped limbs would not have been in the way of the pay loader, but the dump truck with the chipper could not efficiently have followed the pay loader backwards.
That is my story and I stand by it.
What? Well of course there were OSHA violations!
Efficiency, safety, cooperation, make a business profitable!
Senior efficiency evaluator and safety coordinator; Don Ford
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