Starting & Stopping
Starting & Operating
The employer must ensure that, where appropriate, work equipment is provided with one or more controls, each requiring a deliberate action on the control, for the purposes of:
- starting the equipment (including re-starting after a stoppage for any reason);
- controlling any change in the speed, pressure or other operating conditions of the equipment where such a change increases or alters the nature of any health and safety risk.
These requirements do not apply to re-starting or changing operating conditions as a result of the normal operating cycle of an automatic device.
Stopping
The employer must ensure that, where appropriate, work equipment is provided with one or more readily accessible controls which:
- will bring the equipment to a safe condition in a safe manner;
- must operate in priority to any control which starts or changes the operating conditions of the equipment.
Where necessary for health and safety reasons, any such control must:
- bring the equipment to a complete stop;
- switch off all sources of energy after stopping the functioning of the equipment.
Emergency Stop
The employer must ensure that, where appropriate, work equipment is provided with one or more readily accessible emergency stop controls, that take priority over any normal stop control, except where it is not necessary because of:
- the nature of the hazards (for example, removal of the hand in a split second from under the faultily descending blade of a power-operated guillotine will prevent the injury and there is no additional safety benefit of then hitting an emergency stop control);
- the time taken to bring the equipment to a complete stop using the normal stop control (for example, unless an emergency stop achieves a more rapid response than a normal stop then the normal stop can be used in an emergency).