In 2022, one person died every 96 minutes from a work-related injury.
Many of them worked in construction and utilities.
According to OSHA, “Workers in construction and extraction occupations had the second most fatalities (1,056) in 2022 compared to other occupation groups.”
If you are wondering how to reduce safety incidents at work, there are ways to improve your safety training. In fact, inadequate safety training is the top variable associated with accident severity, as identified by the study Worker Safety and Injury Severity Analysis of Earthmoving Equipment Accidents
There are many real challenges to improving safety training in utilities and construction, such as:
- Practicing high-risk scenarios on real equipment poses too much danger.
- Experiencing specific, rare scenarios multiple times is impossible on real equipment.
- Changing an operator’s instinctual responses to events like tipping presents challenges.
- Assessing an operator’s skill level without objective data is difficult.
- Scheduling around limited equipment availability causes delays in training timelines.
- Labor shortages impact the availability of instructors.
Fortunately, simulation training addresses each of these challenges.
Safety simulation training offers many practical benefits, such as the ability to objectively measure and track an operator’s progress, build operator confidence, and prepare operators for certification exams.
It’s a cost-effective solution that is more fuel-efficient and convenient than training on real equipment. But perhaps its greatest benefit is its ability to dramatically improve safety training. Here’s how.
Many of the most dangerous situations operators encounter are simply too risky to replicate in real life. It wouldn’t be wise or ethical to practice tipping to teach operators how to avoid it—or to induce distractions to build situational awareness. But having these skills makes a significant difference in reducing the likelihood of a safety incident. According to OSHA, “Approximately 75% of struck-by fatalities involve heavy equipment such as trucks or cranes.”
What can an operator do if their visibility is unexpectedly reduced? Or if a tire suddenly blows out?
Unexpected, and sometimes uncommon, situations can happen. When they do, how an operator responds can have a significant impact on the outcome. However, training on real equipment has its limitations, since it’s impractical to wait for the weather to turn or for an unusual scenario to present itself.
With simulation, you can induce or replicate rare occurrences and practice responses to them over and over again. This allows operators to be prepared for rare events before they even enter a jobsite—potentially preventing safety incidents and saving lives.
When an excavator begins to tip, how an operator responds can have life-or-death consequences—for both the operator and those around them. “You need to know within a fraction of a second what your next move is going to be to save whatever’s happening,” said 20-year-veteran equipment operator Gary James. Otherwise, the situation can quickly pass the point of no return.
“If you tip over a crane at an energized substation, there’s potential not just for killing yourself but killing a lot of people—plus the amount of damage… it’s big money and bigger consequences,” said Jeff Mitchell, Assistant Business Manager at IBEW Local 17, a Detroit-based labor union that represents nearly 750,000 workers and retirees in the electrical industry.
Because instinct often kicks in during these scenarios, and because instinctual responses can sometimes be the exact opposite of what an operator should do, reprogramming these responses through concentrated training is essential.
Within a simulated environment, operators can build the muscle memory they need to do this. They can learn to identify early warning signs of a dangerous situation, as well as receive instructor feedback on how to proceed and respond. Then, they can practice scenarios over and over, until new habits form that could very well save their life if ever they had to make a split-second decision.
Digging around existing utility lines necessitates a high skill level. But how can organizations be sure that operators have that skill level without objectively testing them?
Subjective assessments of an operator’s skills may be inaccurate. In addition, new hires claiming to have years of experience might not be telling the full truth about their capabilities.
By testing operators within a simulated environment, organizations can remove any doubt about an operator’s skill level. Setting a required training score on a simulator ensures that a company’s health and safety protocols are maintained. As a result, they can rest assured that all operators working in high-precision scenarios are fully capable of handling their responsibilities effectively.
Proactive monitoring in health and safety is all about data. With simulation, operator benchmarking can be a part of that data.
In order to effectively train operators, organizations need to have the resources available to do so. And when equipment isn’t available, that becomes difficult to accomplish by traditional training methods.
Simulation, by contrast, is available 24/7. “On average we’re probably shut down about 25 days a year [because of weather issues],” said Terri Olson, Owner of Next Gen Equipment Training, “The simulator never closes. In fact, we sometimes simulate rain, high wind, and snow conditions for the operator.”
Operators can hop on at any time and practice exercises. Training isn’t interrupted by inclement weather, lack of equipment, or other factors. In fact, it can be an excellent use of downtime. “With the simulator, they [trainees] come in at their own pace, and take as much time as they want,” said Jeff Mitchell.
“With the simulator, they [trainees] come in at their own pace, and take as much time as they want”
The labor shortage has put a premium on instructors’ time, as their expertise can often be needed on the jobsite as well. This makes it hard to train new operators, or provide upskilling to more established workers.
Safety simulation training alleviates this burden on instructor time by making it possible for one instructor to train multiple operators on multiple simulators simultaneously. In addition, it also makes it easier and faster for instructors to provide feedback and corrective training. “With the simulator, I can literally put hands on hands,” said Shane Matthews, Director of Training and Development at ElectriCom. “I can move the trainee’s hands and coach them, and have a discussion with them. It’s much more effective, which is why we’re seeing a trend where learning curves are a lot shorter.”
We’ve covered how operators can train for high-risk scenarios with simulation training, as well as the unique benefits that simulation provides. But it’s important to make the distinction between high-quality safety simulation training and lower-quality safety simulation training—because a lower-quality simulation training program can actually exacerbate issues rather than fix them.
A lower-quality simulation might not accurately mirror soil physics or the feeling an operator will experience just before equipment tips. It might not account for details like tire pressure or pendulum swing, or the way equipment will move as it passes over a curb. This can teach operators the wrong lessons, and lead to a phenomenon known as “negative training.”
What is negative training? It’s inaccurate training based on false information. For instance, flawed soil simulation may encourage the trainee to make excessively deep cuts that would be impractical in real-life scenarios. Or an inaccurate simulated cable system may not teach the student how to skilfully control the pendulum, especially when faced with fluctuating weather conditions and varying loads.
Negative training is especially dangerous because it can lead to a false sense of security that could have devastating consequences once an operator sits behind the wheel of a real piece of heavy equipment.
What does high-quality simulation training look like, and how can you know what will work for you? A high-quality simulation training program will prioritize immersion. And by immersion, we don’t just mean visual immersion, but haptic immersion and auditory immersion, as well.
The highest level of simulation accurately mimics real machine behavior, providing an immersive experience. For example, it can include sounds such as:
- Engine sounds (including fails and stalls)
- Variable engine RPMs
- Horns
- Fork scraping and shifting
- Alarms
- Other worksite sounds that are important audio cues for safe, steady, deliberate, and precise operations
The full-motion platform of a high-quality simulator is also tied, in real-time, to the simulation and accurately replicates much of an operator’s day-to-day experience, such as driving on uneven terrain. Trainees improve their muscle memory, ultimately becoming “one” with their equipment—feeling the platform bowing down as they drill or dig, or pitch when they are at risk of tipping.
Here’s what that looks like in action:
A truly high-quality simulator will feel just like real equipment due to the level of depth and detail put into developing the simulation physics engine and core technology. And that depth and detail will lead to the kind of high-quality training that could very well save lives.
Want to learn more about using simulation to practice high-risk scenarios? Sign up for our on-demand webinar Virtual Training, Real Safety: Elevating Skills in Utility Operations to learn which exercises to use and more!
