Construction Trades Safety · 2–5 min toolbox talk
Caught-In or Between Hazards on Construction Sites
A safety talk focused on construction caught-in and caught-between hazards involving machinery, trenches, collapsing materials, pinch points, rotating parts, and mobile equipment.
Use this printed script for your tailgate or toolbox talk. Read through the hazards, script, and questions with your crew.
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“Caught-In or Between Hazards on Construction Sites”
Key Hazards
- Workers caught in rotating, moving, or unguarded machinery
- Workers crushed between equipment and fixed structures
- Trench or excavation cave-ins
- Materials, forms, walls, or structural members collapsing
- Hands or body parts caught at pinch points during positioning
- Workers trapped by shifting loads or unstable storage
2–3 Minute Talk Script
Caught-In or Between Hazards on Construction Sites requires workers to recognize the task-specific hazards before work begins and to use the controls established for the project.
The crew should review every location where a worker could be pulled into equipment, pinned against an object, buried, trapped, or crushed by movement or collapse.
Machine guards and hazardous-energy controls should be used before workers approach moving parts or enter areas exposed to unexpected startup.
Workers should remain outside pinch points between equipment, walls, vehicles, loads, outriggers, counterweights, and other fixed objects.
Excavations should be inspected and protected with the required sloping, shoring, shielding, access, spoil placement, and water controls.
Temporary structures, walls, forms, trusses, joists, and stored materials should be braced or supported against movement and premature collapse.
Hands should be kept out of connection points and load paths by using tag lines, tools, blocking, fixtures, and clear communication during positioning.
Work should stop when a protective system is missing, a load shifts, bracing changes, equipment approaches a worker, or any person enters a crush or collapse zone.
Safety Reminders
- Identify every pinch and crush point.
- Keep guards in place on moving equipment.
- Control hazardous energy before access.
- Protect excavations from cave-in hazards.
- Brace temporary structures and unstable material.
- Use tools and tag lines instead of hands in pinch points.
- Never stand between moving equipment and a fixed object.
Ask the Crew
- Where could a worker be pinned, buried, or pulled in?
- What equipment or structure could move unexpectedly?
- Are excavations and temporary structures properly protected?
- How will hands be kept out of connection points?
- What change would require everyone to leave the danger zone?