Background: A Preventable Death
In 2019, a Te Kuiti tradesman was killed when a low-loader trailer ramp fell on him. The incident triggered a WorkSafe investigation and, as part of the resulting enforceable undertaking, the employer sponsored Construction Health and Safety New Zealand (CHASNZ) to develop comprehensive guidance on the safe use and maintenance of low-loader ramps. The resulting guidance represents the most detailed industry-specific material available on a hazard that, while encountered routinely by transport and construction contractors, is poorly understood by many of the workers who interact with it daily.
Why Ramps Are High-Energy Hazards
Low-loader ramps present what safety professionals classify as high-energy hazards — situations where stored energy (in this case, the mass and gravity acting on a ramp weighing hundreds of kilograms) can release rapidly and with catastrophic force. The physics are unforgiving: a ramp that falls unexpectedly cannot be stopped by human reaction, and the injury consequences of a worker being struck are severe. The ramp does not need to fail catastrophically; a partial drop or a ramp under load that shifts unexpectedly is sufficient to cause fatal injury.
The combination of heavy mass, mechanical complexity, and the variety of terrains and loading conditions in which ramps are operated means that the hazard cannot be managed by relying on operator experience or good judgment alone. System-level controls are required.
The Key Safety Requirements
The CHASNZ guidance synthesises advice from manufacturers, operators, and industry experts into a set of technical and behavioural controls:
- Never stand in the fall zone: workers must remain clear of the area below and around a ramp during all stages of operation — deployment, loading, and retraction
- Safety devices must be engaged: over-centre valves and mechanical locking devices are not optional — they must be engaged before any person works near or under a ramp
- No improvised lifting: external equipment (excavator buckets, forklift tines) must not be used to raise ramps; manufacturer-approved methods only
- Operator training is mandatory: no person should operate a low-loader ramp without formal training on that specific equipment type
- Pre-use checks and maintenance routines: defects must be identified before each use, not after an incident
- Defective equipment must be tagged out: a ramp that fails pre-use inspection is not to be used — it must be tagged and removed from service immediately
Implementing the Guidance
For transport and construction businesses operating low-loaders, the guidance provides a baseline that can be incorporated into site-specific safe work procedures and operator training programmes. WorkSafe’s Mark Horgan noted that “EUs can be a powerful way to deliver industry-led responses to identified risk gaps” — the ramp guidance is a direct example of that mechanism producing practical, usable safety material from a tragic event. The challenge now is adoption: the guidance exists, the requirements are clear, and the responsibility rests with operators and employers to implement them before the next incident.
