OSHA Announces Stakeholder Meetings on Vehicle Backovers

Two will be held Jan. 8-9 at DOL’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the others will take place Feb. 5 at the University of Texas at Arlington. The agency seeks comments on how to prevent this all-too-common type of injury and fatalities.

OSHA announced it will host five informal stakeholder meetings to take comments on ways to prevent injuries and deaths from vehicle backovers in a variety of industries. The meetings will gather information and evaluate backover risks across industries, determine whether or how backovers can be prevented with new technologies or other methods, and discuss the effectiveness of those measures. New technologies that are already available are cameras, already required by Virginia and by Washington state for dump trucks, and proximity sensing devices, such as radar and sonar.

Two of the meetings will be held Jan. 8-9, starting at 9 a.m. both days, at DOL's headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the others will take place Feb. 5, starting at 9 a.m., 2 p.m., and 7 p.m., at the University of Texas at Arlington. Space is limited; anyone interested in participating or observing must register electronically, by fax to 781-674-2906, or by mail to Eastern Research Group Inc., 110 Hartwell Ave., Lexington, MA 02421, attn.: OSHA Backover Meeting Registration.

OSHA's announcement of the meetings noted 79 workers died in 2011 in the United States when backing vehicles or mobile equipment crushed them against an object or rolled over them, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Federal Register announcement says OSHA published a Request for Information on backover hazards March 29, 2012, which brought responses from individuals and organizations about how workers are injured and how these incidents can be prevented. It says these stakeholder meetings "will provide employers, workers, safety professionals, and equipment makers with an opportunity to inform OSHA about ways to address backover risks."

For information on backover hazards and preventing backovers, visit OSHA's Preventing Backovers Web page.

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