PPE, yes ... what about VPE?

[newforest]

So just curious what your checklist of safety gear might look like for a vehicle. I went to a mine site today, with several more to go very soon.

I think this is my list to be up-to-code with the truck on an active mine property in the USA:

First Aid Kit
Fire Extinguisher
Flashing Strobe
CB Radio
Wheel Chocks
Hi-Viz

Vehicle Hi-Viz? Yes, this has to be something like an orange pennant on a tall pole, to give off-road haul trucks (such as the 777s that carry 100 tons of rock) a better chance to see a road vehicle. I have used "rally flags" designed for dune buggies before, but they weren't easy to attach and detach. I have also put flagging on the CB antenna, which worked OK, but safety inspectors aren't really into McGuyver type solutions. Nevertheless I am trying another one:

I picked up some fluorescent green "trailer sticks", which are 4' tall sticks with a magnetic base. They are designed to place on the ball of a trailer hitch on a pick-up and also on the front of the trailer's tongue, so people who aren't very good at backing up to a trailer can simply align the two sticks as they back up. I will never use them for that, I know, but with the magnetic base they should be easy to put on the roof of the cab and take off once back out the mine gate. They are tall, and they are high visibility. And I can put some flagging on the top of them too...


I was talking with the Environmental Engineer at my next site today. He mentioned back-up alarms. So far not required on personal highway vehicles, only on heavy equipment and dump trucks, etc. But we both agreed that this requirement will probably be coming soon to the small highway vehicles as well, maybe two years out we expect.

[Scooter]

That seems like a pretty standard list, with some variations.
- Most of western Canada uses VHF radios (or occasionally UHF radios) instead of CB. I suspect that digital systems will be common very soon, although I haven't taken the time to investigate them yet.
- I haven't seen Wheel Chocks used very often, although I would think they should be more common in coastal situations. Sometimes, it's not the emergency brake failing or the truck slipping out of gear, it's that the truck just slides slowly (I almost always chock the wheels of trucks with rocks if they're on any sort of a significant slope).
- The "hi-viz" rally flag that you talk about is sometimes called a "buggy whip" out here, especially on mine sites.

The only notable omission is a Spill Kit for cleaning up spilled petrochemical fuels or antifreeze if you dump a radiator.

[Nate]

So just curious what your checklist of safety gear might look like for a vehicle. I went to a mine site today, with several more to go very soon.

I think this is my list to be up-to-code with the truck on an active mine property in the USA:

First Aid Kit
Fire Extinguisher
Flashing Strobe
CB Radio
Wheel Chocks
Hi-Viz

Vehicle Hi-Viz? Yes, this has to be something like an orange pennant on a tall pole, to give off-road haul trucks (such as the 777s that carry 100 tons of rock) a better chance to see a road vehicle. I have used "rally flags" designed for dune buggies before, but they weren't easy to attach and detach. I have also put flagging on the CB antenna, which worked OK, but safety inspectors aren't really into McGuyver type solutions. Nevertheless I am trying another one:

I picked up some fluorescent green "trailer sticks", which are 4' tall sticks with a magnetic base. They are designed to place on the ball of a trailer hitch on a pick-up and also on the front of the trailer's tongue, so people who aren't very good at backing up to a trailer can simply align the two sticks as they back up. I will never use them for that, I know, but with the magnetic base they should be easy to put on the roof of the cab and take off once back out the mine gate. They are tall, and they are high visibility. And I can put some flagging on the top of them too...


I was talking with the Environmental Engineer at my next site today. He mentioned back-up alarms. So far not required on personal highway vehicles, only on heavy equipment and dump trucks, etc. But we both agreed that this requirement will probably be coming soon to the small highway vehicles as well, maybe two years out we expect.

Ground levle hi-vis on a truck doesn't do much. When you're up in a 797 you can't see below the roof of the one ton in front of you. A 12' from the ground buggy whip with a light on top and a high vis flag is standard at pretty much all mines up here I think. Some of the safety stuff is idiotic I think (I hate backup alarms, you get desensitized to them, and chocking pickups is goofy IMO), but I've been in a 789 on a dusty haul road and I absolutely could see the necessity for the buggy whip and light.

[theBushman]

Ontario law requires trucks working in the forest to have:
FAK
Fire Extinguisher
Shovel
Axe or Pulaski
Fire Fighting Backpack Pump with water
Spill Kits as necessary

I've also geared up with:
Bottle and farmer jacks
recovery straps and chain
multipurpose wood blocking

[jdtesluk]

Don't forget several bags of assorted gummies or miniature chocolate bars. In certain emergencies, they are the only thing that will get you out of a world of sh*t......specifically forepersons

[newforest]

Thanks everyone. I very much want a good rally flag, but haven't had much luck on figuring out how to attach one to the truck for just a few days a year. They are cheap and easy to pick up at an ORV shop (ubiquitous, these days)

Haven't experimented with these just yet:



The quarries I'm at this week only just started using strobes in the last year or two, and they don't use the flags yet either. Though there is a Mine Safety agency at the Federal level, enforcement specifics vary by individual office, which is just crazy.

I plant a site in Ohio that is slack as can be on safety items - the general public is driving in there on haul roads with 777s buzzing around all over the place. It is a former coal mine that is being converted to a landfill, quite a brilliant post-mining land use actually, but they accept loads from the public. I don't even like driving in there, and I have seen plenty of video of 777 vs Highway vehicle. Highway vehicle never wins. I think they are headed for tragedy eventually.

They don't use strobes there either - I was glad to have mine one foggy morning last spring. I only do stream restoration plantings there, doesn't look like I will be there this year, and I'm glad about that.

[Nate]

Yeah I think 777s are small enough that you don't worry about the flag as much, they're standard on road building projects up here where there's competent ground and you don't see guys using buggy whips on there. I think strobe lights are mandatory with most contractors, however. It just makes sense, especially when you've got pickups that are turned off and parked somewhere along a work area, doesn't take much for a big D10 dozer or a 777 to smash a dark pickup in the fog/dark/dust.

Here's an example of what is standard up here for buggy whips, with the top of the light being a minimum twelve feet off the ground.



See the picture below of a 777 versus a 797 here and why there's such a difference. I've put a lot of kilometres on the road in my life in a lot of different conditions, but nothing makes makes me more nervous than driving in a mine pit surrounded by the big haulers when it's dusty/foggy.

[Scooter]

I worked at a mine site and the orientation safety meeting always showed a pickup truck that had been backed over by a big haul truck. I'm betting that the dump truck driver barely even noticed. The driver of the pickup got fired for parking in a stupid location.

[newforest]

So ... how do you attach one of those rally flags to a pick-up? They definitely seem like the way to go.



re: digital radio - replacing CB - would like to know more about that. seems like it would be obvious in the 21st century. ?


re: spill kits - the only company I've ever seen require a spill kit on-site is one you might know a little - Weyerhaeuser. I think that probably comes from trying to keep loggers from being idiots, as they are soooooo good at leaving a gallon of hydraulic fluid here, there, and everywhere. in mining, there is so much environmental chaos going on I haven't heard of anyone worrying about a little spill, and we are trying to stay safe, not all green and feel-goody. but it is always nice to have some sort of smart gear that the company you are working for doesn't have yet, or hasn't heard of yet....


re: chains, boards, etc. for getting a vehicle un-stuck - yep, don't go tree-planting without those. I buried my truck in a sand-blow once, ironically on the way through it a second time, and downhill even. it was an epic dig-out. make a hole to put a piece of wood under the axle to put a jack on it to raise the truck to make a hole to put a piece of wood under the tire so you could make a new hole to put a piece of wood under the axle ... on the second day, I threw in the towel and called for help (walk-out to cell service required). I didn't ask for a chain or a come-along or a vehicle that could pull me out - I simply needed more chainsaw gas to be able to cut enough pieces of wood to get-r-done. I pretty much had to create my own corduroy road across the rest of the loose sand. diesels and un-compacted sand do not get along at all. I rarely go in the woods without a chainsaw and am not comfortable when I do for some reason.

[newforest]

re: wheel chocks - I have been working in wheel chock land for over a week now. what I dislike about this is that when I move up into real mountains, the coal companies will tell me not to use them, because if the safety inspectors see me with them, they might ask everyone to use them. so I only ever use them on flat land. brilliant.

the Federal Mine Safety Health Administration varies considerably from office to office. some seem to obviously just sit around enjoying their coffee and donuts and everything is slack. other offices deserve to be firebombed because the inspectors are such assholes. there is one where I'm at now that is known for pulling out seatbelts all the way to the end and then writing a ticket for the inevitable loose thread somewhere on the belt on any vehicle more than a couple years old.

and of course the wheel chocks - how do you know which direction to set the chock, when it is not blindingly obvious? simple, put the vehicle in neutral and see which way it rolls. but what if it doesn't roll at all, and you can't seem to get it to indicate which way it wants to go when the end of the world approaches? this is professional grade safety stuff now, think a little, come on, you can figure it out. it's simple really. if you've been around enough Safety you should know how this would work by now. on flat ground, where a vehicle in neutral won't move, the solution is to use two wheel chocks, one for each direction. you wouldn't want to get a Safety ticket, would you? so, yeah, I need to go buy more wheel chocks, hooray.

one of the most I-wish-I-took-a-photo-of-that moments was seeing a plastic wheel chock on a CAT D6 dozer. of course, on completely flat ground. whatever could make a D6 start to move somehow, well, I don't think a plastic chock was going to save us.