Guidelines issued after fatal Fujairah accident

Safety watchdog Build Safe UAE (BSU) have issued new best practice guidelines following a fatal accident in Fujairah.

The November accident occurred when a 40-year-old operator reversed a motor-grader on a site building the Dubai-Fujairah highway over the Hajar mountains. The driver missed the edge of the path, causing the machine to fall 20m down the mountain. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Following the accident, BSU issued a safety alert to all members, which reiterated the dangers of reversing plant without a banksman.

The report also highlighted the need to not only have properly qualified operators, but to provide refresher courses regularly in addition to frequent checks of safety equipment fitted to the machine.

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With up to 18 levers in addition to other driving controls, motor-graders are often said to be the most complex machines on site to drive.

However, BSU secretary Elias McGrath said: “The problem of plant machinery (falling from ledges) is not just from graders – it applies to all types of machines.”

“The problems come when edges are not properly highlighted with barriers or markers, and when the machines are being operated at night,” he said. “What we are trying to point out is not the machinery, but the scenario as it happens a lot.”

McGrath added that another common cause of accidents in the quarry region was where the dug-out sides of excavations had not been shored up sufficiently; causing wall collapses as machines trundle around the top.

BSU has been issuing regular safety alerts and best practice guidelines since its inception last March. Now it plans to animate common on-site scenarios through its website.

“We’re just running through some stories, such as the grader incident, and are will have them drawn soon after. We hope to have the animations on the website by February,” McGrath said.