Safety Alert 030 Cradle Tilt

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HEALTH & SAFETY ALERT

Alert No.030 Page 1 of 3 Date: 18 February 2014

Cradle Tilt.

Recently, on the same day, at two different construction sites in Doha, there have been two

incidents involving cradles tilting necessitating the rescue of employees from the cradles. In the

first incident, luckily the cradle had only risen to a height of circa 1.5m before the incident

occurred and the cradle tilted to a severe degree. In the second incident, the cradle was higher,

and required a rescue from a cherry picker.

Incident 1:

A water proofing team was engaged in the repairing of windows at 3rdfloor level. They decided to

use a suspended work platform that had remained idle for couple of months. As the operatives

started to activate the cradle from the lower level and bring it into balance by using the remote

control with process of ON/OFF, one motor of the cradle stopped while other continued to run,

causing the cradle to tilt and unbalance. One of the crew applied the emergency button, however

it didnt work and eventually the electrical connection was disconnected remotely. Neither of the

operatives had received any training in the use of a suspended work platform. The trapped crew

was rescued by the safety team by using straight ladders.


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Investigation revealed:

i. The technician stated the AC conductor of the affected motor was affected by dust,leading it to remain connected to the other supply conductor thus allowing the motor to

remain running,

ii. The works took place without any notification to the safety team, and therefore bypassing

the PTW system,

iii. Untrained operatives were placed into this position by the managers,

iv. No planned or regular maintenance had taken place on the idle cradle,

Incident 2:

The cradle in question had tilitedand become unbalanced during faade works. During Initial

conversations with the operator he had claimed that the winching system and emergency stop

had failed to work, causing the cradle to tilt.


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Investigation revealed:

The cradle suppliers were called to site to carry out extensive examination and testing of thecradle, winches, ropes etc. Their examinations concluded that there were no mechanical

failure/faults with the cradle and/or suspension/winching/emergency systems. A full technical

report was issued to confirm this.

With mechanical failure eliminated the focus shifted to the operators. During further investigations

it became clearer, as the operators changed their statements, that operator error was the likely

cause.

Recommended proactive actions:

i. Ensure all cradles on arrival at site and before first use undergo a third party inspection,

ii. Only trained and competent individuals to become operators and work within the cradles,,

iii. A register of the trained operators is kept at site and available,

iv. Have a regular planned maintenance and inspection regime in place for all cradles on site,

v. Daily check sheet to be completed before each shift use by the operators,

vi. Centralised control on site of all cradles, with each individual cradle able to be tracked

(audit trail) of arrival date, locations, inspection dates, use dates, etc and logged,

vii. Tools and equipment used within the cradle to be secured and tethered,

viii. Ensure appropriate PPE worn by the operators, and that they are connected to separate

individual lifelines,

This Safety Alert should be displayed on all Safety Notice Boards and discussed at Tool-

box Talks & Safety Meetings.

Thank you, KEO H&S Dept.

Documents

Safety Alert 030 Cradle Tilt