The access road that runs through the school site is heavily used, as many workers do outreach

work. In addition, visitors to the site, parents and children use the road to come into school and the
day nursery. It was noted that many of the painted road sins were worn away, so users would not be
aware of speed restrictions. This presented a significant risk of vehicles speeding and causing road
traffic accidents. Also, there were many sharp bends in the road, which would increase the potential
risk from speeding. The additional problem of vehicles being parked in undesignated areas
prevented drivers having proper vision of the road and obstructed footpaths. In view of the

vulnerability of the many pedestrians in the area, this could easily result in a major injury or fatality.
Any claim for damages would be very high and this type of accident could have very high
consequences to the schools reputation.

Speeding vehicles and vehicles inappropriately parked make access and egress unsafe, not only for
school workers, but other car users and pedestrians. These risks may be seen to contravene the ILO
Occupational Safety and Health Convention C155, Article 16 (1), which requires employers to
provide workplaces that are safe.

School workers, parents, children and visitors should be alerted immediately of the speed limit,
sharp bend hazard and parking problem, for example by email and letters handed out. This will incur
very little cost, mainly time and paper. Temporary signs should be made and located on the route
into the school and where parked vehicles cause an obstruction. This can be done by downloading
signs from the internet, printing and laminating them using school facilities, costs for this should be
limited to 30. Maintenance work should be carried out during the next four weeks to repaint speed
limit signs and erect a sing warning of the sharp bends, at a cost of 500 approximately. Signs and
bollards should be erected to prevent the unauthorised parking; this is likely to cost approximately
1,000. All limit signs and restriction parking should be monitored yearly during the site inspection.
The sum of money necessary to make improvements is small relative to the risk of serious injury that
may be caused by the hazards.

3.2 Observation 5 Risk of electric shock access to communications mast

It was observed that the gates restricting access to the communications mast were not secured by a
padlock and there were no signs warning of the electrical hazard within the restricted area. This
meant that anyone could enter the restricted area and be at risk of electric shock. The school has a
large number of children on site who may be attracted by the electrical equipment and could have
enter