Oldcastle/Idaho Concrete Success in Safety Story

Implementing Safety In Loud Environments

Machines, vehicles, and ground employees must work in close proximity when working on an aggregate site like Idaho Materials and Construction (IMCCO), a division of Oldcastle. There are often homes nearby. The mixture of these elements can result in a loud environment where backup alarms become less effective and intrusive to the surrounding neighbors. Because of Oldcastle’s corporate commitment to eliminating hazards and improving operations, IMCCO contacted Preco Electronics, Inc..

The first priority was reducing blind spot accidents. Studies show that more than half the accidents at a construction site are due to blind spots. The second priority was increasing the effectiveness of backup alarms and reducing the noise levels for the surrounding neighbors within OSHA guidelines. Finally, IMCCO is a business, so protecting the bottom line was essential. The financial toll of an accident includes downtime, repair costs, penalties, and potentially years of litigation. Of course, this pales in comparison to the pain and suffering of a co-worker or his family when there is an injury or loss of life.

A Safety Solution to Reduce Blind Spot Accidents

The solution was PreView® Safety Alert System (PreView SAS). PreView SAS detects objects in the drivers blind spot, then warns the driver of the object through an in-cab audible and visual alert. The back-up alarm then increases in tone to warn those outside the vehicle they are in danger. The change in tone gets the attention of those surrounding the vehicle and keeps the site noise levels down by only activating the increased tone when an object is detected.

Since installing their first PreView SAS system on a wheel loader with great success, IMCCO has continued to integrate this system throughout their fleet and expanded it to their concrete trucks.

“Studies show that more than half the accidents at a construction site are due to blind spots.”

Safety Concerns Solved

IMCCO needed to solve three distinct issues: noise reduction, reduction of blind spot accidents, and different blind spot areas for each machine.

PreView Sensors are designed to detect moving and stationary objects in blind spots to significantly reduce accidents. PreView consists of three simple components: 1) external sensor; 2) in-cab display to provide visual and audible notification to the operator; and 3) cable system to connect the sensor and display. Coverage area for ICCO was set at 20’ per their specific needs. This solved their safety issue. In order to solve the issue with the noise levels, PreView SAS was set up to control the sound level of the backup alarm. When the sensor did not detect an object in the blind spot area, the backup alarm was active, but the volume was set at only slightly higher than the ambient noise. Once an object was detected, PreView SAS increased the sound level of the alarm to notify those outside of the vehicle of the reversing movement of the vehicle, while notifying the operator in the cab. The result was a reduction in noise level when there was no danger.

Rugged

PreView sensors were 100% effective even with dirt, dust, mud, snow, fog, and the other extreme conditions common at any concrete site.

It Just Works

IMCCO saw for themselves that PreView Radar “just works” during their pilot project. Because of these solid results, they have continued to integrate PreView throughout their fleet. Find out for yourself how PreView can help your company, and start your pilot project today.