6.4: What is my employer required to do to protect workers from caught-in or –between hazards?

■ Provide guards on power tools and other equipment with moving parts

■ Support, secure or otherwise make safe equipment having parts that workers could be caught between

■ Take measures to prevent workers from being crushed by heavy equipment that tips over

■ Take measures to prevent workers from being pinned between equipment and a solid object

■ Provide protection for workers during trenching and excavation work

■ Provide means to avoid the collapse of structures scaffolds

■ Provide means to avoid workers’ crushed by collapsing walls during demolition or other construction activities

■ Designate a competent person

■ Provide training for workers

Provide guards on power tools and other equipment with moving parts

OSHA standards require your employer to ensure that hand-held power tools are fitted with guards and safety switches. The type of guard will be determined by the power source of the tool (electric, pneumatic, liquid fuel, hydraulic, or powder-actuated). Exposed moving parts of power tools, such as belts, gears, shafts, pulleys, etc. must be guarded. Points-of-operation– where the work is actually performed on the materials – must also be guarded. Power saws are a primary type of equipment that requires a point-of operation guard. In-running nip points, such as where the sanding belt runs onto a pulley in a belt sanding machine, must also be guarded.

Support, secure or otherwise make safe equipment having parts that workers could be caught between

Your employer should provide a lock-out/tag-out program or equivalent system to ensure that equipment is not accidentally energized during maintenance or repair. Lockout/tagout procedures are specifically required for equipment used in concrete and masonry operations. Bulldozer and scraper blades, end-loader buckets, dump bodies, and similar equipment must be blocked or fully lowered when being repaired or not in use.

Take measures to prevent workers being crushed by heavy equipment that tips over

The best way to prevent workers being crushed by heavy equipment that tips over is to prevent the equipment from tipping over in the first place. For examples, cranes can tip over if the load capacity is exceeded, or the ground is not level or too soft. OSHA requires that your employer designate a competent person to inspect crane operations to identify working conditions that are hazardous to workers, including ensuring that the support surface is firm and able to support the load. Your employer must make sure that material handling equipment is equipped with rollover protective structures. OSHA standards require that motor vehicles, forklifts, and earthmoving equipment must be equipped with seat belts. Your employer must require their use. The use of seat belts will prevent workers being thrown from a vehicle or equipment and subsequently being crushed when the vehicle or equipment tips over.

Take measures to prevent workers from being pinned between equipment and a solid object

Employers are required to take measures to prevent workers from being pinned between equipment and a solid object, such as a wall or another piece of equipment; between materials being stacked or stored and a solid object, between shoring and construction materials in a trench.

Example 1: During demolition operations, when balling or clamming is being performed, only the personnel absolutely necessary to the work must be allowed in the work area.

Example 2: Your employer must make sure that proper bracing is used between heavy plates used as shoring in a trench.

Example 3: Your employer must carefully arrange the path of travel when loading/unloading, stacking, and storing materials so that no workers will be caught between materials and moving equipment or between materials and a wall.

Provide protection for workers during trenching and excavation work

OSHA standards on trenching and excavation require your employer to designate a competent person to inspect the trenching operations. The competent person must be trained in and knowledgeable about soils classification, the use of protective systems, and the requirements of the OSHA standard. The competent person must be capable of identifying hazards, and authorized to immediately eliminate hazards. The employer must make sure all excavations and trenches 5 feet deep or more, but less than 20 feet, are protected by: sloping or benching, trench box or shield, or shoring, and that there are adequate means of access and egress from the excavation. If an excavation is more than 20 feet deep, a professional engineer must design the system to protect the workers. Workers must be protected from equipment or materials that could fall or roll into excavations. This could include spoils that could fall into the trench and bury the workers. Mobile equipment used near or over an excavation presents a hazard. When mobile equipment is operated adjacent to an excavation, or when such equipment is required to approach the edge of an excavation, and the operator does not have a clear and direct view of the edge of the excavation, a warning system must be utilized such as barricades, hand or mechanical signals or stop logs. If possible, the grade should be away from the excavation. If a crane or earthmoving equipment is operating directly over the top of a trench, workers should not be working underneath.

Provide means to avoid the collapse of structures scaffolds

Measures need to be taken by your employer to avoid the collapse of other structures, such as scaffolds, that could bury workers underneath them. Anytime there is inadequate support, improper construction, or a shift in the components of a scaffold (including the base upon which the structure is built), there is danger of collapse. Cinder blocks or other similar materials should not be used to support a scaffold because they could be crushed. OSHA standards require that scaffolds can only be erected, moved, dismantled or altered under the supervision of a competent person. The competent person selects and directs the workers who erect the scaffold. These workers must be trained by a competent person on correct procedures and hazards of scaffold erection.

Provide means to avoid workers’ being crushed by collapsing walls during demolition or other construction activities

During demolition, any stand-alone wall that is more than one story must have lateral bracing, unless the wall was designed to be stand-alone and is otherwise in a safe condition to be self-supporting. Jacks must have a firm foundation. If necessary, the base of a jack must be blocked or cribbed. After a load has been raised, it must be cribbed, blocked, or otherwise secured at once.

Designate a competent person

OSHA defines a “competent person” as “one who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards in the surroundings or working conditions which are unsanitary, hazardous, or dangerous to employees, and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate them.”

Your employer must designate a competent person for certain construction activities that may have caught-in or –between hazards:

■ Training for scaffold erection

■ Inspections of excavations, the adjacent areas, and protective systems

■ Engineering survey prior to demolition of a structure (and any adjacent structure where workers may be exposed) to determine the condition of the framing, floors, and walls, and possibility of unplanned collapse

■ Continuing inspections during demolition to detect hazards resulting from weakened or deteriorated floors, or walls, or loosened material

Provide training for workers

OSHA’s general training requirement for construction workers is:

■ The employer shall instruct each employee in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and the regulations applicable to his work environment to control or eliminate any hazards or other exposure to illness or injury.

■ Your employer must train you to perform your job and use the equipment provided safely.

■ Construction activities that may have caught-in or –between hazards and that have specific training requirements in OSHA standards include

■ Scaffolds – workers who are involved in erecting, disassembling, moving, operating, repairing, maintaining, or inspecting a scaffold