Christmas: it’s time for lights!

Festive lights illuminating cities are the most recognisable sign of the coming Christmas holidays.

However, tight deadlines to fulfil high number of tasks, the need to minimize interruptions and intervention costs can cause great stress for professionals working at height. Common mistakes are always a threat: choosing the wrong platform, relying on poorly trained operators, or underestimating particular features of the intervention site.

Above all, works on public roads or potentially crowded places, such as shopping centres, require even greater attention than ordinary operations in a controlled environment.

In fact, in these conditions, operators are exposed to more threats like traffic, pedestrian crossing areas, electrical lines and other overhead obstructions. Operations may also be carried out at night, in bad weather, unsafe ground conditions, or even in places where managing the loading/unloading operations is not easy.

Here are some tips on how to make your working environment safer:

1. Plan ahead – Evaluate the risks and the working site; plan ahead for traffic management during the intervention.
2. Make yourself visible – Always wear high visibility PPE, make sure your platform is clearly visible and that the intervention area is sufficiently lit, for you and for the others.
3. Manage traffic – Use temporary traffic lights or limit the passage on the road where you will carry out the intervention; equip yourself with suitable signs to warn arriving vehicles with the right warning sign.
4. Create a protected area – close the working area to vehicles and non-working personnel. Place the platform away from traffic or pedestrians.
5. Safe Load/Unload – Load/unload materials in a well-lit area, away from obstructions and traffic.

These tips will help make your job safer and easier, because Christmas lights may be beautiful, but a safe working environment is even more!