Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Control
The process
Hazard identification is systematic, not incidental. Walk the task: what plant, substances, people, environment and energy sources are involved? For reach stackers the recurring hazard families are: struck-by (pedestrians, vehicles, swinging containers), crush (between container and ground, between chassis and tyre), overturning (boom raised with load, soft ground, slope), falling loads (twistlock not engaged, damaged corner casting), electrical (overhead lines), hydraulic injection and fire.
Assessing and controlling
Risk assessment rates likelihood and consequence, then controls follow the hierarchy: eliminate, substitute, engineer (guards, interlocks, exclusion zones, reversing cameras), administrate (procedures, permits, signage), then PPE last. PPE is the weakest control and never the answer alone.
Traps
- Questions offer "training" or "high-vis vest" as the control for a hazard that needs engineering separation - the correct answer is usually the higher-order control.
- Residual risk must be reassessed after controls; it is rarely zero.
- Dynamic risk assessment is required when conditions change (wind, rain, new traffic, shift change).
Worked example
A container yard has pedestrians crossing the travel lane. Hierarchy: eliminate the crossing (relocate the walkway), then engineer separation (barriers, marked pedestrian gates), then administrate (induction, signage), then PPE (high-vis). A question offering only "instruct pedestrians to be careful" is the lowest-order answer and is wrong.
Rule of thumb
Name the hazard, name the harm, name the control, name the residual risk. If you cannot state the harm a control prevents, it is not a control.