Risk Assessment
The five steps in a quarry context
Risk assessment means identifying hazards, deciding who might be harmed and how, evaluating risk, recording significant findings, and reviewing. In quarries, assessments must be suitable and sufficient and must be specific to the task and location - a generic office-style assessment is a common wrong answer.
Hazard versus risk
A hazard is anything with potential to cause harm (an unguarded conveyor, a 30 m face, silica dust). Risk is the combination of likelihood and severity of harm. Questions often swap these terms; read carefully.
Hierarchy of control
Eliminate, substitute, engineer (guards, extraction, interlocks), administrate (procedures, training, signage), then PPE as the last line. The trap is choosing PPE when an engineering control is available - PPE is the weakest control and depends on human behaviour.
Dynamic and point-of-work assessment
A written assessment is not enough on a changing site. Workers must carry out dynamic assessment before and during the task: has the weather changed, is the ground stable, has traffic altered? Lone working, night work and adverse weather all need specific consideration.
Worked example
Assessing work near a stockpile edge: hazard = collapse/fall; who = plant operator and pedestrian; controls = exclusion zone set back from the toe and crest, no reversing over the edge, trained banksman, edge protection or delineation, and review after rain. PPE (hi-vis, boots) is listed last, not first.
Traps
- "Residual risk" means risk remaining after controls - it is never zero.
- Reviews are triggered by change (new plant, new layout, incident) as well as by a calendar.
- Record significant findings; trivial risks need not be written up but must still be considered.