Employers replace beep-beep-beep with ‘psssht-psssht’ back-up alarm: WorkSafeBC
RICHMOND, B.C. — British Columbia’s worker-safety agency says more employers are replacing the beep-beep-beep back-up alarm on vehicles with white noise for safety’s sake.
WorkSafeBC says the white-noise broadband alarm uses the same cadence but broadcasts a range of frequencies and emits a sound that is more focused in an area where people may be at risk.
The agency says reversing vehicles pose a safety risk on job sites and that 11 workers were killed between 2006 and 2015 as they were pinned or struck by vehicles that were backing up.
Sasha Brown, WorkSafeBC’s occupational audiologist, says people gradually learn to ignore conventional back-up alarms when they’re used to hearing them so much, and people who hear the broadband sound are less likely to tune it out.