Site Communication and Hand Signals

Most equipment incidents have a communication failure somewhere in them: two people signalling, a radio nobody was on, a shout nobody heard, or an instruction understood two different ways.

The rules that already exist

• Crane signals — 1926.1419 requires the signal person and the operator to agree on the method before operations begin, and a hand signal chart to be posted at the job site or on the equipment. Standard signals unless the lift needs a non-standard one, agreed in advance.
• Flagging — 1926.201 sends you to the MUTCD for signalling by flaggers.
• Training — 1926.21(b)(2) makes it the employer's job that people are instructed, and that includes being instructed in a language and vocabulary they understand.

Making it work on the day

• One signaller. Named out loud, before the machine moves. Two people waving means the operator picks one and the other is watching something they cannot see.
• Agree the signals before you start — not by assuming everyone learned the same ones somewhere else.
• Anyone can call an emergency stop. Everyone should be told that, in as many words, and the signal for it should be one nobody can mistake.
• No signal means stop. If the operator loses sight of the signaller, or the radio goes quiet, the machine stops. That rule is what makes the whole system safe rather than approximate.

Radios

• One channel, agreed, and somebody monitoring it. A radio in a truck is not communication.
• Say who you are and who you want. "Base, this is Mike on the north side."
• Read it back. Repeat the instruction before you act on it. It takes three seconds and it catches the one in twenty that was heard wrong.
• Do not rely on a radio near a running machine. If it matters and it is loud, get eyes on each other.

Language

If part of the crew works in Spanish, the signals, the briefing and the stop word have to work in Spanish too. A safety instruction understood by most of a crew is a safety instruction that failed.