Operating mobile plant in or near to water bodies

Background

A recent incident near a water body resulted in the complete submerging of a 75 tonne excavator in a flooded quarry pit.

At the time of the incident, the excavator operator was positioning the powered mobile plant on a bench in the flooded extraction area.

While entering the water body to position the excavator on the bench, the excavator became submerged. The operator needed to escape and swim away from the excavator.

The operator received first aid at the site before he was transported to nearby medical facilities for further treatment.

Safety Issues

Operating powered mobile plant in and around water bodies of unknown depth and underlying ground conditions may expose plant operators to the risk of the machinery becoming submerged resulting in injury or drowning.

Safety issues for operators of mobile plant include risk of:

• electrical shock
• entanglement with parts of the plant
• drowning
• exposure to contaminated water
• exposure to unpredictable water currents resulting in being swept away.

Other safety issues may include:

• inadequate safe systems of work for operating powered mobile plant in and or around water bodies
• insufficient assessment of risks or identification of controls regarding the operation of powered mobile plant in and or around water bodies
• failure to provide information, instruction, training or supervision when entering or operating powered mobile plant in or nearby water bodies.

Recommended ways to control the risk

To eliminate or reduce the risk of powered mobile plant becoming submerged in waterbodies, employers may:

• ensure exclusion zones are provided around bodies of water including appropriate physical barriers and signage to prevent plant from accessing the water hazard
• maintain working surfaces around bodies of water including benches to ensure appropriate ground bearing capacity to support the weight of the powered mobile plant
• where possible, manage the water level by reducing water in-flow or using engineering controls to automatically extract water before work platforms including benches become flooded or submerged
• ensure that the powered mobile plant utilised for working near bodies of water is appropriate for the task at hand, such as the use of a long reach excavator
• ensure powered mobile plant is not operated in water bodies unless it is specifically designed for that application such as barge mounted plant or amphibious plant
• where possible, remove water from areas of the workplace that require accessing via powered mobile plant
• ensure that appropriate rescue procedures are implemented prior to operating powered mobile plant in and or around bodies of water and the required recovery or rescue equipment is provided and readily accessible
• provide information, instruction, training and supervision on operating powered mobile plant around bodies of water
• provide appropriate personal protective equipment such as personal flotation devices when operating plant designed to operate in water bodies.

Legal Duties

Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017, employers must, so far as is reasonably practicable:

• provide and maintain a working environment for employees that is safe and without risks to health
• maintain the workplace in a condition that is safe and without risks to health
• provide and maintain systems of work that are safe and without risk to health
• provide and maintain plant that is safe and without risks to health
• ensure employees are given such information, instruction, training or supervision  as is necessary to enable them to work in a way that is safe and without risks to health
• identify all hazards associated with the use of plant at the workplace where the plant is used or located and the systems of work associated with the plant
• eliminate any risk associated with plant, and if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate a risk, reduce the risk so far as is reasonably practicable by
  • substituting the plant with plant that has a lower level of risk, or
  • isolating the plant from persons, or
  • using engineering controls, or
  • using a combination of the above risk control measures
• eliminate or reduce the risks to the operator associated with the plant overturning, objects falling onto the operator of the plant, or the operator being ejected from the plant.