Gaining Insight, Evidence, and Visibility Into Worksite Safety
Forklifts are one of the most critical pieces of equipment in countless industries worldwide. Without these vital tools, many businesses would grind to a halt. However, they also pose a substantial threat to workers that can have devastating results when not managed properly.
Unfortunately, these fatal interactions are far too common. Forklifts killed 78 workers in the United States in 2020. 36% of those killed were pedestrians. This is despite the implementation of a range of passive safety measures.These include, blue lights, halo lights, reversing alarms, pedestrian safety zones and mandatory high vis safety gear.
Most of these passive measures are essential tools in an organization’s safety arsenal - despite this, pedestrians continue to die. Increasingly regulators are saying - pedestrian forklift safety needs to change - passive safety measures are simply not enough. One of the best ways to do that is with active safety measures such as pedestrian detection sensors.
These active safety measures prevent accidents by detecting when an obstacle or pedestrian enters a hazardous zone around mobile equipment. The sensors will then audibly alert both the operator and pedestrian so that they can take evasive action and an accident is prevented. Think of it like a second set of eyes for mobile equipment operators.
Pedestrian sensors on the market today
Pedestrian detection sensors prevent accidents by bringing awareness of their surroundings to equipment operators. To be truly effective, pedestrian proximity sensors need to be simple, effective and affordable. However, while the sensors on the market today have the same goal, most do not meet all three criteria.
Every sensor has its pros and cons. They use different technology such as lidar, machine learning, tags, or transmitters worn by pedestrians. Some are over-sensitive and produce nuisance alarms, sounding the alarm prematurely for everything they encounter, which understandably causes operators to ignore them eventually. Some take a 360° view of the environment and do not focus on the critical risk zone behind a reversing machine where the majority of accidents occur. Others rely on tags worn by pedestrians, but that only works if workers remember to put them on or if they have not already run out of batteries.
What good is a pedestrian detection sensor that can not detect people? Unfortunately, many sensors cannot withstand the harsh environments many industries operate in and stop working whenever any type of interference or conditions are not ideal.
Simplicity is critical when all you want at the end of the day is for your technology to do its job. However, the biggest issue with many sensors today is how they overcomplicate the job. Many use advanced technology that sounds great on paper, but that ends up becoming less user-friendly, harder to install, and more expensive to maintain.
The most effective solutions are often the simplest, and SEEN Safety's IRIS 860 pedestrian detection sensors are the most effective on the market today. They integrate painlessly into any work environment and leverage one of the most common types of personal protective equipment, the high visibility vest. Because the sensor picks up on a piece of PPE that employees are comfortable wearing, the integration is seamless, and the sensors are effective from day one.
Seen Safety's sensors are simple, effective, affordable, and have reliably protected pedestrians in the harshest environments available. With their practical, user-friendly, and affordable pedestrian safety solution, Seen Safety offers one of the best sensors on the market today.
Pedestrian sensors need more data
A critical issue with many sensors today is that they do not provide management with visual proof of what has occurred. Knowledge is power, and when the goal is to prevent severe injuries and accidents, gaining a better understanding of why they happen will help leaders make more intelligent choices on how to avoid them. But, if they do not know, they can not fix it.
The most effective safety and health programs do not just react to accidents; they prevent them before they occur. Having reliable data about the hazards in your workplace is the best way to achieve that. Robust data gives you insight into your operations and allows leaders to make educated predictions about where the next hazard may arise.
For those reasons, more and more businesses are demanding better data and analytics from every aspect of their business, and safety and health is no different. For example, every time a pedestrian detection sensor goes off there is the potential for a severe or fatal accident. Therefore, safety managers are not happy just knowing that the sensor did its job; they want to see why it went off and how they can prevent that risky situation from happening again.
How Seen Safety is changing things
Seen Safety's IRIS 860 Sensors have been an industry stand-out for years, but the recent addition of the IRIS-i Camera has taken them to another level. The IRIS-i Camera sits alongside the IRIS 860, whenever the sensor makes a detection it takes a picture, and films a short video. The camera then sends that critical information to the SEEN Insight app.
Subscribing to the SEEN Insight app allows health and safety professionals and other leadership members to dig into the incidents confronting their workers. The Insight platform monitors and reports on incidents, allowing leaders to identify areas of concern and gain insight into what is truly happening within their enterprise.
The IRIS-i Camera is an IoT product, which means it is simple to use. The product also categorizes the type of detection captured, whether a human or a fixed object.
When the IRIS-860 and the IRIS-i Camera team up, the results are powerful. These two devices provide strong visual evidence and robust analytics available through the SEEN Insight data platform that give leaders real insight into incidents and near-miss events. Information that leaders can use to make proactive, practical changes to overall workplace safety that minimize the potential for incidents.
The visual evidence of detection events also provides safety managers with the necessary proof of non-compliance and demonstrates to all members of staff the reality of the current risk level within an organization. Videos make a strong business case for change and are an effective tool for persuading management to increase site safety.
The next step towards a safer workplace
There is a tendency amongst people to become complacent to a hazard when there have not been any perceived negative repercussions from it yet. However, with the visibility gained through SEEN Insight, you can demonstrate just how close a potentially severe or fatal accident might be.
See whether Seen's IRIS 860 pedestrian detection sensors and SEEN Insight are the right fit for your workplace here.