Construction site safety and mobile phones

Safety: Mobile phones on jobsites

Everyone today has a mobile phone in their pocket, phones are used by everyone everywhere, they are used so much that they had to start creating laws to protect the mobile phone users and the people around them.

There are laws about using phones while you’re driving, flying in a plane and even walking, most people don’t realize that there are rules that govern construction jobsites as it applies to the overall safety of the jobsite.

The problem with mobile phones is that they are so new that a lot of companies haven’t bothered to create rules to govern jobsites or thought about implementing the rules that already exist.  The fact is that there are rules to govern mobile phones on jobsites; it’s time that construction companies started enforcing them.

One of the biggest safety concerns with mobile phones is the distraction they can create for people when they are working. Construction sites can be dangerous places if you don’t pay attention to your surroundings, you can hurt yourself or someone else around you. People who are looking or texting or talking on their phones can walk right into something that could get them hurt or hurt someone else.

Construction takes two hands to work; if you are using one hand for your phone all day then you’re not working with both and you’re not working productively. Workers that text to each other on the same site are even more dangerous because now you have two people that are endangering themselves and everyone around them.

Mobile phones should be limited to the supervisors and managers as it corresponds with their jobs, all other workers should leave their phones in their pockets. With younger workers who are used to being on their phones all the time they should be forced to leave their phones in their vehicles. They can check on their phones at breaks and lunch or if they have a need to they will have to ask their supervisor for permission to check on them more often.

There is no reason for people to need to communicate all day with other people while they are working.

Using your mobile phone is not a right it’s a privilege, that privilege does not triumph the safety of the workers around them or the overall site safety of the jobsite.

So keep the phone in your pocket or keep it in the car. Your life could depend on it.

Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.