East Lansing, MI — Employers who’ve skid steer loaders ought to develop, implement and implement a complete harm prevention program that features coaching employees on hazard recognition and avoidance.
That’s amongst an inventory of suggestions in a just lately printed fact sheet from Michigan State University on stopping work-related deaths and injuries from skid steer loaders. The doc additionally lists examples of employee deaths involving the tools.
Also often called compact observe loaders or tracked skid steers, skid steer loaders are “small, rigid-framed machines” with carry arms that may settle for all kinds of attachments (buckets, forks, augers, snowblowers and blades, stump grinders, and dumping hoppers). The loaders – which may be outfitted with wheels or tracks – are utilized in building, demolition, agriculture, landscaping and different industries.
In Michigan, 32 employees died from skid steer loader-related injuries between 2001 and 2021, and 99 have been injured from 2015 to 2021, in line with MSU.
“People have been crushed between the protective cage and an attachment; injured while driving or being struck by a skid steer loader; struck or crushed by an attachment or item being moved, lifted, or transported by the skid steer loader; caught or crushed by the skid steer loader while performing maintenance tasks; or injured falling off while operating the skid steer loader,” the fact sheet states.
