Safety Alert: 4-point safety helmet harnesses

 

In a recent accident noted by an ICHCA member, an engineer’s safety helmet was caught on a projecting piece of steelwork and pulled backwards. The 4-point harness caused a significant neck/throat injury because it did not break away. The investigation discovered that some harnesses have two break-away settings, 25kg and 50kg. The one in this case was set at 50kg.

 

Recommendation:

All organisations using helmets with 4-point harnesses should:

• check that the model used has a break-away weak point
• if the weak point has multiple settings, ensure that when issued it is set to the appropriate breaking force (this is likely to be the lower setting, but the appropriate setting should be identified by a suitable and sufficient risk assessment);
• provide information to users on the importance of using the appropriate (typically the lowest) force setting on the harness;
• include this issue in safety inspections, spot-checks, PPE audits etc.

 

 

ICHCA International is committed to helping industry to learn lessons fast, learn them once and make sure that they stay learnt. This information is intended to provide all organisations in the cargo supply chain with the opportunity to consider the events and to review and adapt their own health and safety control measures to proactively prevent future incidents.

ICHCA International is committed to helping industry to learn lessons fast, learn them once and make sure that they stay learnt. This information is intended to provide all organisations in the cargo supply chain with the opportunity to consider the events and to review and adapt their own health and safety control measures to proactively prevent future incidents.

We are grateful to Hutchison Ports for providing details and for raising awareness. We acknowledge their commitment to sharing learning to benefit others. If you have similar operations, please share this information with managers, operatives and any potentially affected third parties as appropriate. Please also review any of your relevant operations for similar hazardous conditions, risks, and controls. Learning content like this is highly valuable as it is based on real-world experience. We encourage everyone with publishable information about incidents to send it to us, so that we can raise awareness across the whole industry. Please contact us at secretariat@ichca.com; sharing your insight could save a life or prevent injury.