Fall Protection Equipment Requirements in Loading Docks, Maintenance Bays, and Other Material Handling Areas

The steps you can take to anticipate, identify and properly mitigate fall hazards.

By: Philip Jacklin, Contributor

An overhead anchorage system can be erected outdoors in a truck loading/unloading area to provide workers with fall protection. © Diversified Fall Protection

If one were to consider common accidents that might occur in material handling areas, one might assume the incident would be related to mishandling of material or the equipment that moves material, like forklifts. And while accidents with forklifts are a significant cause of injury that results in nearly 100 workplace fatalities per year, there is another hazard much more prevalent in the general industries that yields almost 10 times as many fatalities: falls from heights. Fall protection requirements have led the OSHA ‘Top 10 Most Cited Violations’ list for the past 14 years and cause 1,000 workplace fatalities each year.

Across many industries, at surprisingly low heights, and with no discrimination for the age of the worker, falls are a leading cause of injury and fatality in the workplace. However, most falls can be prevented —especially in established facilities with generally static environments. Many warehouses, manufacturing sites, processing plants, and other facilities can anticipate most work operations that will occur anywhere on the grounds. If fall hazards are anticipated, identified, and properly mitigated, we can prevent falls and reduce the overall number of fall-related injuries and fatalities in the workplace. This article will discuss general fall protection requirements and mention methods to promote plant safety and protect workers, with a focus on material handling situations.

GENERAL FALL PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS

According to the federal OSHA 1910 General Industry standard, employers must provide fall protection anytime workers are exposed to falls four feet or greater. Any system that is properly used and prevents fall injuries accomplishes the ultimate goal of protecting workers and is considered effective in meeting this requirement. However, there are characteristics of certain fall protection solutions that can promote user compliance and thus further reduce the risk of injury caused by misuse or negligence.

Proper training is imperative to provide workers with the knowledge and resources to keep themselves safe while working at heights. OSHA requires employers to designate and train Authorized Users before anyone in the organization can use fall protection equipment. The industry standard for this training typically consists of 4-8 hours of classroom instruction, but it may vary based on the number of fall hazards existing in a facility. The training should educate workers on how to identify fall hazards, what equipment is provided to mitigate those hazards, and review all known fall hazards in the facility. Authorized Users should know their organization’s fall protection policies and procedures and should be retrained if they display a gap in understanding that could risk injury for themselves or others.

Horizontal lifelines that allow users to connect one time, without having to connect and reconnect into several anchor points, can be installed along the same distance or span. © Diversified Fall Protection

LOADING DOCK FALL PROTECTION

Many areas in a facility may require fall protection, but some areas might have more obvious fall hazards than others. When trucks aren’t present in loading docks, they are not much more than elevated walkways with an exposed edge. Exposed edges are considered a fall hazard because a worker that slips or trips nearby could then proceed to fall off the loading dock onto the next lower level.

In these or similar scenarios, temporary guardrail can be utilized to provide fall protection from an exposed edge of the walking working surface. It is a common misconception that guardrail must be permanently fastened to be OSHA-compliant. Weighted baseplates can suffice in meeting OSHA’s strength requirements for guardrail. Once a truck pulls up to the loading dock, the guardrail can be easily relocated, and standard loading/unloading operations can proceed. Before the truck leaves and the loading dock has an exposed edge, guardrail panels can be replaced so workers are continuously protected from the fall hazard.

FALL PROTECTION FOR INDOOR/OUTDOOR TRUCK SERVICE AREAS

Often, workers must climb onto flatbed trucks to assist with loading or unloading payload material from the trucks, and they must be protected from falling off or being knocked off the truck. Unlike our previous scenario, guardrail is not as feasible to provide fall protection in this circumstance. Most likely, workers will have to utilize a personal fall arrest system to protect them from a fall. Fall arrest systems require an anchor, body harness, and connection device, like a Self-Retracting Lifeline (SRL) to decelerate the fall and protect the worker from fall forces.

Providing a worker with a harness and SRL is simple enough, but it’s unlikely the worker will have a fall protection anchorage located on or near the truck. The anchor, harness, and connection device are all required components in a complete personal fall arrest system. However, if there is a designated place for truck loading/unloading in the facility, an overhead anchorage system can be retrofitted into the existing overhead structure or can be erected outdoors to provide workers with fall protection. If trucks are not in consistent locations when payload must be loaded or unloaded, mobile overhead fall protection devices can be moved anywhere on plant grounds using forklifts or pick-up trucks. Mobile systems may be limited to only allow one or two workers to be connected at any given time, but slight modification of operations should be seen as permissible in the efforts of promoting worker safety.

Truck services or maintenance bays will also require some form of fall protection for workers who must service the tops of fleet vehicle bodies. Depending on the range of the working zone where multiple trucks can be loaded into service bays, it could be beneficial to provide a continuous overhead anchorage solution, also known as a horizontal lifeline. Many structures can be retrofitted to accommodate horizontal lifelines that allow users to connect one time and can “follow” them around their work zone, without having to connect and reconnect into several anchor points installed along the same distance or span. The simpler a system is for users to remain connected, the more effective that system will be in preventing fall injuries.

CONCLUSION

While it’s easy to discuss generalized versions of areas in a plant that may require fall protection, providing real-life solutions that will protect real-life workers can quickly become a complicated effort. Plant safety managers can rely on fall protection manufacturers like Diversified Fall Protection to assist with staying informed on fall protection industry developments, identifying fall hazards, providing customized solutions for complex hazards, and training workers on how to protect themselves while working at heights. We can all contribute to providing worker safety and preventing falls in the workplace. If we can prevent falls, we can save lives. wmhs

For more than 25 years, Diversified Fall Protection has been making sure workers make it home. The company accomplishes this by being a trusted safety advisor or an extension of their customers’ safety teams. From fall hazard identification to system installation, training and inspections, Diversified Fall Protection aligns with its customers to develop long-term partnerships that keep workers safe. Visit: https://www.fallprotect.com