I finally switched from hand signals to radios on site

Used to swear by hand signals, thought radios were just another thing to break or lose. Then I had a job last August in downtown Nashville, tall building going up, visibility was garbage. The signal guy and I kept missing each other, almost had a bad swing. That afternoon I borrowed a cheap two-way from the foreman and honestly, I haven't looked back. Anyone else hold out on radios way longer than they should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

anna4911d ago

Read something the other day from OSHA about how line of sight issues cause most hand signal accidents. Made sense after that Nashville job you mentioned. Radios just cut out all that guesswork.

leo_black761d ago

Buddy of mine from the apprenticeship program was on a job out in Columbus where they were doing hand signals across a really busy intersection. Line of sight broke when a dump truck pulled up and he gave the wrong "stop" signal because he couldn't see the operator clearly. They had to redo a whole section of concrete that got poured wrong. @anna491 is dead right, radios just take all that guesswork out and save everyone a headache and a half. After hearing that story I told my foreman we need radios on every single job we do now.