Crea Studio

Safety signs on construction sites aren’t always as heavily policed as they should be. I have been on some construction sites here in Australia and there have been some seriously dangerous areas where there has been a lot of people passing by that have had no danger signs displayed. These construction contractors have left their businesses wide open to any number of potential law suits that won’t be covered by their insurance companies.

Why should these insurance companies have to pay out anyway if the contractor has been too careless or miserly to put proper safety signs in place to avoid accidents? You can bet your bottom dollar that if the contractor does not comply with all the terms and conditions of their insurance policy(s) that the insurance company won’t pay out in the event of an accident. Not only that, they are most likely to cancel the rest of the policy because the contractor is in breach of the agreement.

An insurance policy of any type of insurance is a contract. Any contract that is not complied with becomes ‘null and void’.

There are a lot of safety signs required to be clearly displayed on any construction site. Obviously the bigger the work site, the more signs and the wider variety of signs that are required. If you are a project manager, then it is your responsibility to make sure that all the sub-contractors have adequate and proper insurance and it is important that your own business insurance policies cover your company in case any subcontractor is in non-compliance.

If you as a project manager find one of your sub-contractors are not displaying proper safety signs where needed, do be sure that you tell them in writing of the default. You must have everything documented to protect yourself from any and all legal liability.

Obviously it is much better to make physically sure that there are signs in place warning of a hazard before an accident happens and you start to lose days off work due to injuries. Any project manager who gets a reputation on a work site for days lost due to injuries is not someone any property developer or Engineer would look forward to employing.

Safety signs on a construction site have to be very sturdy and able to take a lot of physical wear and tear. Not only from dust and being constantly knocked around by physical workers, but the weather is one of the worst enemies of any signs that are constantly exposed to weather conditions. Having a faded and hard to read safety sign does not count by the insurance companies as being ‘adequate’ on any building site.

It is always your responsibility to protect yourself, your workers, your business and the general public as best you can. Sometimes, even with the best of safety signs clearly displayed on a construction site, accidents still happen. When they do, you as the project manager, need to be sure that you are well protected.