Walk the Line: 10 Tips to Help Manage Traffic Safety in Your Facility

With 20% of all workplace deaths still caused by vehicles, here are 10 cross-industry tips that will go some way towards making your workplace safer, streamlined and more efficient…

1. PROPER SEGREGATION
Wherever possible vehicles and pedestrians should be segregated, with each moving in their own defined zones.

2. CROSSING POINTS
Areas where vehicles and pedestrians crossover are critical and they should be properly managed – use floor markings, overhead walkways, control lights, gates and make sure these areas are clearly marked.

3. ALWAYS FIT-FOR-PURPOSE
Understand the potential forces of the vehicles operating in your workplace – only then can safety barriers that are fit-for-purpose be installed. Barrier specialists should have an up-to-date tick sheet of vehicles with their potential kinetic energies.

4. DESIRE LINES
Try to create pedestrian routes that follow ‘desire lines’ – the natural route a pedestrian would take around a facility. This way, it’s less likely a pedestrian will stray from the designated path.

5. CORRECTLY TRAINED
Even the best traffic management procedures can’t prevent the wreckage caused by a rogue FLT driver. Make sure every driver is trained, certified and kept up-to-date with best practice.

6. DEFINE THE ROUTES
Pedestrian routes should be clearly defined and coloured differently from areas where traffic is permitted.

7. SAFETY ZONES
Ensure a ‘deflection zone’ or ‘pedestrian buffer zone’ is implemented as part of the pedestrian route. This considers the amount of deflection in a barrier if it happens to be impacted by a vehicle. A white floor line 1m away from the barrier should inform pedestrians not to enter this zone.

8. SHARP CORNERS
Blind corners are potential hazards for vehicles. Strategically placed barriers can help ‘soften’ hard angles and improve drivers’ line of sight.

9. PROTECT INFRASTRUCTURE
Wherever vehicles move near structures or equipment protect them with the correct, fit-for-purpose barrier system.

10. RE-EXAMINE
Facilities are ever-changing and can easily become over-run and unsafe. Continually examine and revise your traffic management procedures.

A-SAFE is the inventor and manufacturer of the world’s first fixed polymer safety barrier system. Barriers are implemented as part of a wider traffic management strategy that puts segregation of vehicles from pedestrians at its core.