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OPERATOR INVOLVEMENT AINSCOUGH CRANE HIRE
Page 43
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Steve Cooke, engineering director at Ainscough Crane Hire explains the decision to develop a fall-prevention system was prompted by the current Work at Height rules. "Legislation has changed so that anybody exposed to risk when working at height has to have Work at Height provision. We've always worked hard to ensure that we incorporate a Work at Height system on every piece of equipment we buy. We do a risk assessment and work with manufacturers to make people safe."
The task, continues Cooke, was to create something for Ainscough's 79 Noteboom ballast trailers. "We have a long-standing relationship with Tinsley from a fabrication point of view, so we sat down and came up with the system that — with a few modifications — was what we wanted.
"Working with Tinsley, we came up with the idea of the post-and-wire system and developed it with them."
"The great merit [of Safety Gard]" says Cooke 'is that it can be assembled entirely at ground level. There was no point in us having a system in place if the driver then had to get up on the trailer to erect it. It's all done at ground level, then the driver can climb up via the ladders at both ends."
Cooke rejected the Idea of staff using harnesses, "...because of the effects of suspension trauma. We wanted to prevent people falling off the edge that removes any requirement for a harness."
The firm will fit Safety Gard to all of its 79 special types ballast trailers and is already working with Tinsley to develop a similar system for its regular 'C&U' trailers. "We're spending up to 2250,000 on these systems because we value health and safety," says Cooke.
Last year, Ainscough's H&S initiative was recognised at the prestigious European Association of Heavy Haulage Transport and Mobile Cranes awards, where it won the first-ever safety award for Safety Gard.