Safety question for excavator operators

[Ali]

It’s dangerous for me to be sat on my own in a van for too long, I start thinking. Stuck in roadworks for at least 2hrs of a 5hr trip today.

Lots of these working just behind a barrier, traffic whizzing past at up to 50mph, maybe 6ft away in some spots.

They can spin 360, right? Most of them were spinning 180 and dumping the bucket then turning back for more.

I just wondered what would happen if the operator lost concentration for a second, or had a seizure or something, and spun round too far, into the traffic.

Set my mind at rest and tell me they have a sensor and/or some sort of hard stop?

I’m sure it would have happened if there wasn’t.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

If the control arm console is flipped down the controls are live regardless of the operator. If he's pushing left or right with his left hand it will spin regardless of being concious.

What's to stop the lorry driver behind you suffering the same date and squashing your vehicle.

 

[Ali]

If the control arm console is flipped down the controls are live regardless of the operator. If he's pushing left or right with his left hand it will spin regardless of being concious.

What's to stop the lorry driver behind you suffering the same date and squashing your vehicle.

Hum. Don’t fully understand, but I get that you’re saying - yep, that could happen.

Yes, agree about the lorry analogy. Still seems risky to me so close to the traffic.

 

[Migmac]

My guess would be you could fit a device to restrict how much the machine can slew, we had a digger with a device that stopped the bucket being lifted to high. They were working under the water supply pipe to a hydro scheme

 

[bourbon]

So you are saying close two lanes instead of the one, In the event of an incident that may never happen

 

[Ali]

So you are saying close two lanes instead of the one, In the event of an incident that may never happen

No, I hadn’t really thought about that. I just thought they might have a stop of some sort. I know if I have to do a repetitive operation for a long time there’s a chance I’ll make a mistake. Left, scoop, right, dump, left, scoop, right dump, right, oops...

I realise it would be annoying to slow traffic down even more, I was sat in it.

 

[wristpin]

Some 360s have built in adjustable rotation limiters and also adjustable height of lift limiters on the boom and dipper for working where there is restricted head room.

 

[Pete.]

Whilst some machines have slew limiters they are not common and not standard fitment. Sometimes they are a requirement e.g. when working close to railway lines. The one big drawback to relying on a slew limiter to not slew into a danger zone is of course that the machine can also rotate on it's tracks and as the machine turns so does the limit zone.

 

[8ob]

From my experience the only danger an excavator will experience on motorway work is the motorist Witnessed plenty of cars spinning out of control and into the cordoned off work zones, one numpty managed to crash through the work zone and demolish the barrier separating the motorway lanes .That happened in a 40mph restriction, two minutes before that happened we had about twenty blokes standing in that very spot being briefed.


Bob

 

[slim_boy_fat]

maybe 6ft away in some spots.

Wasn't the safe margin area all coned off?

 

[mtt.tr]

No different to scaffolders working near roads
Or any job, you should be component enough to not mess up.

 

[Pete.]

They should also fit some sort of device on planes to make sure they of land at airports. And milk floats too just in case the driver forgets he should drive parallel to the kerb.

 

[Agrismith]

If on the motorway works you can tell which ones have slew limiters as they have 'slew limiter fitted ' written across the back of them

 

[pedrobedro]

Or any job, you should be component enough to not mess up.

Competent ?

you can tell which ones have slew limiters as they have 'slew limiter fitted ' written across the back of them

That would be a clue then. We have passed miles of motorway roadworks and never seen the 360 close enough to reach into traffic. They are usually on top of the embankment scraping uphill towards them at the back of the Variguard barrier. (Which a friend of ours gets paid a lot of money to install)

 

[mtt.tr]

Competent ?

Haha yes that one

 

[Ali]

Thanks for the replies. So a limiter is sometimes fitted, curiosity settled. Appreciate this is a highly skilled job, lots of respect to those that can do it.

 

[4String.]

The rail boys get particularly nervous when I have to offload near a live rail, for very obvious reasons, and I’m regularly asked if I can limit the slew on the Hiab, mainly due to the fact that the boom will extend to 22 metres horizontally.

My standard reply, while looking at them over the top of my specs, is “ I can, but it has to be programmed in by laptop, however I have no intention of using the crane as a snooker cue. If you’re at all worried, stand next to me. Should anything go wrong, hit the red emergency stop button on my remote control unit. If they doesn’t work, hit the same button just behind the nearside door of the cab. In the extremely unlikely event that that doesn’t work, switch the engine off. But please bear in mind that I’ve been doing this job longer than you’ve been alive and it hasn’t happened yet...”

 

[Parm]

No different to scaffolders working near roads
Or any job, you should be component enough to not mess up.

You’d be surprised (maybe not) at how badly things can go wrong even when lots of safety devices and equipment are fitted.

 

[mtt.tr]

You’d be surprised (maybe not) at how badly things can go wrong even when lots of safety devices and equipment are fitted.

Which is why training and skilled staff are required. For instance gps tractor, driver playing with it managed to ditch it as it believed it was in the field

 

[Parm]

Which is why training and skilled staff are required. For instance gps tractor, driver playing with it managed to ditch it as it believed it was in the field

Yep

This is what I was getting at. Competency is important, that comes from training, education and experience

All equally as important as the other