Emergency plans and fall rescue

An emergency plan is one of the few pieces of site paperwork New Zealand law does require by name. Regulation 14 of the 2016 regulations requires a PCBU to prepare one, maintain it, and make sure workers know it. Where people work at height in a harness, the plan has to include getting them down, and that part is routinely missing.

What regulation 14 requires

A PCBU must prepare an emergency plan for the workplace, maintain it so it remains effective, and ensure it is readily accessible to workers. The plan has to provide for effective response to an emergency, evacuation, notifying emergency services at the earliest opportunity, medical treatment and assistance, and effective communication between the person in charge and everyone at the workplace.

It also has to be tested, and workers have to be given information, training and instruction on implementing it. A plan in a folder nobody has opened does not meet the regulation on any of those counts.

What goes in it

• The emergencies you are planning for. Fire, injury, services strike, structural collapse, spill, severe weather, and the ones specific to your site.
• The alarm. How it is raised and how everyone hears it, including people in hearing protection or inside a structure.
• Evacuation and assembly. Routes, the assembly point, who counts heads and against what list.
• The street address to give 111. Write it down: the person making the call is not always someone who knows it.
• First aid. Who the first aiders are, where the kit is, where the nearest medical facility is and how long it takes to get there.
• Rescue arrangements for height, confined space and excavation work.
• Communication. How the person in charge reaches everyone, and how workers reach them.
• Who does what, by role rather than by name alone, so the plan survives the named person being away.

Fall rescue: why a harness needs a plan

A fall arrest system stops the fall. It does not get the person down, and the time between those two things is the problem.

A worker hanging in a harness is held by leg straps that compress the veins returning blood from the legs. Blood pools, the volume returning to the heart drops, and the person can lose consciousness. This is suspension intolerance, sometimes called suspension trauma, and it can develop within minutes, particularly if the worker is injured, unconscious or unable to move their legs.

A rescue that depends on calling the fire service and waiting is not a plan for a suspended worker. Plan to reach them yourself, in minutes, with equipment that is on site and people who have practised using it.

What a workable fall rescue plan says

1. How the person is reached. MEWP, ladder, another anchor point, a rescue system. Named, and present on site while the work happens.
2. Who does it. At least two people on site at all times who have practised.
3. How long it should take, and how that time was arrived at.
4. What happens if the first method fails. A second route, and the point at which emergency services are called rather than waited for.
5. Aftercare. A rescued worker is a medical case even if they seem fine, and should be assessed.

Choosing a system that prevents suspension in the first place is better than planning the rescue. Edge protection, a work positioning system, or a restraint system that stops the worker reaching the edge all remove the problem rather than managing it, which is the order regulation 6 requires anyway.

Confined space and excavation rescue

The same principle applies and the margins are tighter. Entry into a confined space needs a rescue arrangement in place before entry, with the rescuer outside and equipped, because a would-be rescuer entering unprotected is a common way one casualty becomes two. Excavation collapse rescue is largely about not making the second collapse happen, which means the plan is written before the dig, not during it.

Testing it

The regulation requires testing, and does not say how often. On an active construction site, testing the evacuation once and the rescue arrangement whenever the method or the crew changes is a defensible position. Record what was tested, when, what took how long, and what you changed as a result.

Sources

• Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, reg 14 (duty to prepare, maintain and implement an emergency plan) and reg 6
• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, s36 and s37
• WorkSafe New Zealand, Working at height in New Zealand, good practice guidelines
• WorkSafe New Zealand, Safe working in a confined space, good practice guidelines
• WorkSafe New Zealand, Excavation safety, good practice guidelines

This guide is general information about New Zealand health and safety law as at the review date. It is not legal advice and it does not describe your site. Confirm what applies to you with WorkSafe New Zealand or your adviser.