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Florida Worker Safety and ATVs

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Florida company has recently started using ATVs. Any safety tips?

Here are some safety precautions your company can take to help avoid ATV deaths at work. Train your employees in the proper handling of the vehicle. Many of the fatal workplace accidents by ATV, or All-Terrain Vehicles, happen because workers have not been trained in the safe use of the machine.

Workers should wear safety gear, including seatbelts and helmets, whenever they are operating an ATV.

Employees should not stand up to shift their weight in order to stop the ATV from rolling over. That can be disastrous. If a worker is standing on an ATV and it rolls over, serious head injuries could follow.

Do not allow any passengers to ride on your company’s ATVs. These machines are designed to carry only drivers, and even adding one passenger will make the vehicle unstable, increasing its chances of overturning.

Finally, be careful about making modifications. Some employers add herbicide or liquid fertilizer reservoirs. Some add cargo bays or other equipment. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says modifying an ATV in ways not planned by the manufacturer has caused a number of deaths. Stay within the manufacturer’s guidelines when modifying them.

In Florida and elsewhere nationwide, more and more industries are using ATVs, particularly those involved in outdoor work. Agriculture, landscaping, forestry and construction are chief among these.

With an increase in ATV workplace use, the death count increases.

While the ATV may look like a sporty “toy,” and while they are sometimes used by children, that should not distract from the dangers. The death toll from ATVs climbs yearly. A disastrous recreational mishap in Arizona during Labor Day weekend points up this danger.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s statistics show that deaths by ATV have soared. In 1982 the death toll was 29. Just 24 years later, in 2004, the figure was 470 – a 15-fold jump. Injuries hit 136,100 in that same year. JH