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As crane operators and heavy equipment crews are recognized on National Tradesmen Day, Sept. 19, industry leaders are highlighting the growing importance of safety technology that works in sync with workers.
In a statement, Terry J. Ryals, director at Speedshield, reflected on both the skill of tradespeople and the risks created when technology produces too many false alarms.
When Safety Technology Becomes the Enemy
National Tradesmen Day is a chance to recognize and celebrate the people who keep the wheels of industry turning. Those with dirty boots on the ground, those co-ordinating and overseeing projects, and those operating heavy equipment and complex machinery, usually in environments where there’s zero margin for error. Tradespeople are valuable because of the experience they bring to their roles day after day, but they also have an uncanny ability to adapt, improvise, and keep things moving safely and efficiently in challenging conditions. That combination of skill, knowledge, and human awareness is something no machine can replace.
Yet, at the same time, the sheer scale and power of modern industrial equipment means that tradespeople are beginning to face levels of risk that can catch even the most practiced worker off-guard. There are more than 40,000 manufacturers of industrial machinery in the US alone, each doing what they can to minimize risk and keep tradespeople safe. Often, that means layering on more alert systems – buzzers, sirens, and flashing lights. And while technologies like pedestrian detection are fitted to these machines, they often flag so many false alerts that work begins to slow, and tradespeople lose trust in the very systems designed to keep them and their colleagues safe. Over the years we’ve seen ‘alert fatigue’ creep in, where tradespeople become so overwhelmed by the number of audible alerts and false alarms that it becomes almost impossible to maintain full concentration and situational awareness. The role of technologists like us is to listen closely to these challenges and create safety solutions that work with tradespeople rather than against them. Rather than layer on more alerts, we need to ensure that the alerts that do sound are timely and accurate. Technology should be used to take the heavy burden of vigilance away from workers rather than trying to catch them out – whether that’s through pedestrian detection, telemetry, or predictive maintenance that spots issues before they become hazards.
Tradespeople will remain central to everything from building infrastructure to keeping global logistics flowing. This National Tradesmen Day, it’s worth remembering that the future of industry depends not just on innovation in machines, but in the safety, wellbeing, and expertise of the people who operate them.
Terry J Ryals, Director, Speedshield
Ryals emphasized that while technology has an important role in safety, excessive alerts can create “alert fatigue,” reducing situational awareness for crane operators and ground crews. He noted that innovations such as predictive maintenance and accurate detection tools should relieve the burden of constant vigilance rather than add to it.
