Backing Up & Spotters
Every year workers die in the blind spot of a vehicle driven by someone they'd worked beside for years. The truck doesn't know you're there — and half the time neither does the driver. A free talk from Blue Crane Works in Hamilton, Ontario, with a printable sign-in sheet.
How to run it
Read it through once, then talk it — don't recite it. Five minutes at the start of the shift, crew standing where the work happens. Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act requires every employer to provide information, instruction and supervision to protect workers (s. 25(2)(a)). A talk like this, led by a supervisor or someone they trust, is one way to do it, and the sign-in sheet is what proves it happened.
Talk through these points
- Assume the driver can't see you, because mostly they can't. Mirrors and cameras have gaps exactly where people stand.
- One spotter, agreed signals, always visible to the driver. If the driver loses sight of the spotter — stop. That's the whole rule.
- Walk around before backing. Kids' bikes, cribbing, an open trench — thirty seconds of walking beats any camera.
- High-vis worn properly, and eye contact with the operator before crossing equipment paths. A nod means seen.
- Phones down around moving equipment — a distracted pedestrian in a yard is as dangerous as a distracted driver.
- Plan deliveries so trucks pull through instead of backing where the crew works. The best backing incident is the one the site layout deleted.
Ask the crew
- Where on this site do vehicles and people share space every day?
- What are our actual hand signals — show me stop.
- Can we set the next delivery up as a pull-through?
The answers are the real talk. If a question lands on a live hazard, write it down and assign it a name and a date.
Paper it
A talk without a record didn't happen, as far as anyone who asks is concerned. Print these free:
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