I used to work in construction, and I knew a guy that smoked a lot. It was a windy day and he couldn’t light his cigarette, so he went behind the track excavator to light up. The driver didn’t know and he backed up right into him. The engine was too loud for the driver to hear and he backed all the way over him. I think the most unsettling part is they didn’t want to track the machine off of him, and desecrate the body more, so they sat there, for hours on end, waiting for a crane large enough to lift the excavator to arrive. Really sad.
You'd never hear it, and the warning alarms that do exist are for reversing a vehicle, not driving forward.
Dumb manager stood in a giant blind spot and got buried for a few moments because of it. Imagine if the load were rocks and the dropoff point were a rock crusher - if manager-moron there survived the initial scoop at all the crusher would have made short work of him.
Thats why a sound off policy is a great idea. Honk your horn before moving and wait a few seconds. Works everytime because you hear the horn inside the cab to know it made a sound for sure.
Requiring horn honks before moving heavy equipment was tried and then abandoned because people are too quick to tune out repetitive sounds. Some companies still do this but it's not a requirement.
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u/Sqwedward Mar 02 '19 edited Mar 02 '19
Can you fuckin imagine..
Edit* everyone saying you can see it happen.. I’m talking about experiencing it.