Hughes & Salvidge in SiteZone first

A United Kingdom demolition contractor has taken a lead on anti-collision safety by specifying OnGrade’s proximity warning system, SiteZone.

Hughes & Salvidge – based in Portsmouth in the south of England – is insisting on system for all projects at its London Heathrow Airport operations involving plant and on-ground personnel.

OnGrade director Gary Escott said: “SiteZone has already proved successful in construction and waste.

“However, we know demolition is high-risk because personnel on foot often work in close proximity to heavy plant on site.

“The team at Hughes & Salvidge have shown how dedicated they are to staff safety and using SiteZone will help reinforce and improve safety performance.”

The system uses radio frequency identification (RFID) detection.

It can see around corners, through dust and smoke and in poor light conditions, giving targeted warning alarms to both drivers and workers on foot should they enter each other’s working area.

Plant and vehicles are fitted with SiteZone base stations, while workers have RFID transponders fitted to their hard hat or sleeve.

When a worker breaches a predefined detection zone, both the worker and driver receive a ‘proximity warning’. The RFID tag vibrates, while sound and flashing lights in vehicle cab alert the driver.

SiteZone also logs incident data which can be transmitted and viewed on the Cloud using the telematics function.

Hughes & Salvidge group safety, health, environmental and quality (SHEQ) manager, Tony Jack, said: “We work very hard on our approach, development and implementation of matters relating to Health and Safety. We are very proud of our health and safety record and we are delighted to enhance this with the introduction of the proximity warning system on all plant we are using at Heathrow.

“We didn’t want to use this safety system because we were asked to. We wanted to initiate the system as a key part of every project at the airport where plant and on-ground personnel are working in close proximity.”