NU-SAF-116 — MOBILE EQUIPMENT, SPOTTERS & BACKING

Tier 2/3 — Procedure + Field Card · Rev 0.1 DRAFT · Drafted August 1, 2026 · Owner: Field Supervisor Parent: NU-SAF-100 [Adam: confirm which §5 element this hangs under] Certification tie-in: the B-SPOTTER badge (NU-QAL-601-A) teaches the skill. This document says when the skill is mandatory. Badge without SOP = a man who knows how but not when. SOP without badge = a rule with nobody qualified to execute it. You need both.

THE GATE

Nothing at Nova moves in reverse unless one of two things is true: the driver walked the full path immediately before backing and nothing has changed — or a spotter the operator can see is on signals. And no ground man approaches a running machine without eye contact first. A STOP from anyone stops everything, instantly, no discussion.

Struck-by incidents are the #1 killer in utility construction, and backing is the #1 way they happen. Not trench collapse, not electricity — a truck or a machine moving backward into a man who thought the operator saw him. On a Nova crew of 3–6, the machine and the men share the same 50 feet of ground all day. This document is what keeps them from sharing the same spot.

The record for this gate is the JSA backing/spotter line and the DVIR mirror/camera line (§8). A gate that produces no record is a suggestion.

1. WHAT THIS COVERS

Every piece of Nova equipment that moves: 7 trucks, every trailer combo, 3 HDD rigs, 3 mini-excavators, hydrovacs, and anything rented or borrowed that runs on a Nova site. If it has an engine and it moves, it is under this document.

What this does NOT cover (it lives elsewhere — don't duplicate, go read it):

2. THE SPOTTER STANDARD

Items 1–5 are the B-SPOTTER badge card (NU-QAL-601-A), stated as law. If the badge card and items 1–5 ever disagree, stop and flag it — they are supposed to be the same standard. Item 6 is this SOP's addition — [Adam: approve adding one spotter, one machine, one job as a B-SPOTTER demo row at the next 601-A rev].

1. Standard hand signals, and both sides know them. The operator and the spotter use the same signals. A spotter improvising gestures at a driver who's guessing is two people having separate conversations while a truck moves.
2. STOP is obeyed instantly, by everything. Closed fist or crossed arms — the machine stops before the operator understands why. Anyone on site can call STOP, not just the spotter. You stop first and ask second. Always.
3. The spotter stands where the operator can always see him. If the operator loses sight of the spotter — even for a second — the machine stops until he reappears. No spotter in the mirror means a man might be under the bumper.
4. Never behind the machine. Never in the swing radius. The spotter guides from the side, out of the travel path and out of the exclusion zone (§4). A spotter who backs up while looking at the truck is walking blind into whatever is behind him — he checks his own path too.
5. Trucks back on signals only, driver's window down. Window down so the driver can hear a shouted STOP over the radio, the alarm, and the diesel. Radio or hand signals guide the truck; the open window is the backup channel that works when everything else fails.
6. One spotter, one machine, one job. The spotter spots. He is not checking grade, not on his phone, not carrying pipe. The moment he does anything else, there is no spotter, and the machine stops.

Badge demo 4 (trailer backing) is §3; badge demo 5 (trench watch) is §4.5.

Who can spot: once the badge board is live, spotting is a B-SPOTTER-badged job. Until then, the Crew Lead names the spotter by name at the morning JSA — not "somebody watch him back up." [Adam: NU-QAL-601-A is still draft — approving it makes this section enforceable by badge instead of by name.]

3. WHEN A SPOTTER IS REQUIRED (not optional, not judgment)

What "walked and clear" means: the driver himself walked the full path, end to end, immediately before backing — and then backed immediately. Walked it, took a phone call, and backed two minutes later is not walked and clear. Kids, dogs, gates, and coworkers move in two minutes.

4. EXCLUSION ZONES — WHERE NOBODY STANDS

Every machine has ground it owns while it runs. Ground men stay out of it; the operator does not work with a man inside it.

1. The swing radius. The rear of a mini-ex house swings past the tracks. It swings fast, it swings without warning, and the counterweight does not slow down for a skull. Nobody inside the full swing circle — front, sides, or rear — while the machine is live. Where the swing reaches a walkway or another crew's path, cone it off per NU-SAF-105.
2. Articulation and pinch points. The hitch V between truck and trailer, the pivot of anything articulated, between the machine and a wall, a trench edge, a spoil pile, or a parked truck. If a machine moving six inches would pin you, you are standing in a pinch point. Get out of it.
3. The travel path. Nobody walks behind a machine that is running, alarm or no alarm. The backup alarm on a jobsite is background noise by 9 a.m. — it warns nobody who has heard it 200 times that day.
4. The load path. Never under a raised bucket, raised attachment, or suspended load. Never in the line of a rod or a reel under tension — that side of it lives in the HDD Operator book and NU-FLD-220; the standing rule here is simply: not under, not in line.
5. The digging face and the trench edge next to a working machine. A machine does not dig while a man is in the trench it is working. Man needs in → digging stops: bucket grounded or swung clear, operator hands off the controls, top man watching (trench watch — B-SPOTTER demo 5). Machine resumes → trench empty. The operator cannot see below grade, and a spotter changes nothing about steel moving over a man's head.

5. APPROACHING A RUNNING MACHINE — THE EYE CONTACT RULE

The man on the ground is invisible until proven otherwise. Every machine has blind spots big enough to hide a person, and the operator is watching the bucket, not the ground behind his shoulder.

1. Stop outside the exclusion zone. Do not walk in talking.
2. Get the operator's eyes. Wave, radio, whatever it takes — from outside the zone.
3. The operator acknowledges: eye contact returned, then hands off the controls and the attachment grounded (bucket down, rotation stopped).
4. Only then approach, from the side the operator pointed you to — never from behind.
5. Leaving is the same in reverse: step back out of the zone, clear signal, and the operator does not move until the ground man is visibly out.

Why it matters: "he saw me" is what every backing-fatality report says the ground man believed. Eye contact returned is the only version of "he saw me" that counts.

The record: the §10 row-1 JSA line — briefing this rule is part of naming the spotter.

6. OPERATORS — BELTS, ROPS, AND HOW YOU PARK YOURSELF

1. If the machine has ROPS, the belt is on. Period. OSHA ties the two together (29 CFR 1926.602(a)(2)): the rollover structure only saves you if the belt keeps you inside it. Unbelted in a rollover, the ROPS is the thing that crushes you when you're thrown halfway out.
2. ROPS stays on and stays stock. Never removed, never drilled, never welded on, never "temporarily" folded down to clear a branch and left down.
3. Mount and dismount facing the machine, three points of contact. Jumping off a machine is a sprained ankle on a good day and a man under his own tracks on a bad one.
4. Position to pull forward. The best backing maneuver is the one you designed out at arrival. Park and stage so machines and trucks leave forward. Every backing event you don't need is a struck-by that can't happen.
5. No riders. One seat, one person. Nobody on the tracks, the hitch, the fender, or the trailer.
6. Know your blind spots before you need to. Sit in the seat, have a man walk the machine's perimeter, and see where he disappears — once per machine class, and it changes how you back forever. [Adam: this blind-spot walk is NOT on the B-SPOTTER card today — approve adding it as a demo row on B-SPOTTER (or on the C2 Truck / C4 Mini-Ex cert cards) at the next NU-QAL-601-A rev; until then it is a training habit with no record.]

7. PARKING & SHUTDOWN

Every machine, every truck, every time — even "just for a minute":

1. Parking brake set.
2. Attachments on the ground. Bucket down, blade down, forks down. A raised bucket on a parked machine is a suspended load with nobody watching it.
3. Chocks per NU-FLT-310 — trailers and anything parked on grade. The chock rule, which wheels, and the towing sequence live there; this document just says: it applies every time, not just at the yard.
4. Key out or cab locked on any machine left unattended where the public can reach it — a residential street with a running mini-ex and a curious 10-year-old is a lawsuit with a countdown timer.
5. On or beside a live road, the parked vehicle also gets the NU-SAF-105 §5 cone box and shadow-vehicle rules. Not repeated here — go read them.

8. MIRRORS, CAMERAS & ALARMS — THE DVIR TIE-IN

The equipment that makes backing survivable is inspected like brakes, because it matters like brakes.

• Mirrors adjusted and intact, backup camera (where fitted) clean and working, backup alarm audible — checked on the pre-trip, written on the DVIR, every truck, every day. A dead alarm or a mud-caked camera lens is a writable defect, not a shrug.
• A truck with a known-dead backup alarm and an obstructed rear view does not back without a spotter — that is the federal minimum (29 CFR 1926.601(b)(4)), and it gets repaired, not lived with.
• [Adam: the DVIR procedure is NU-FLT-312 on the register gap list — still unbuilt. Until it issues, this check rides on the existing pre-trip / Daily Truck Log. Building NU-FLT-312 closes the loop.]

9. FIELD CARD — SPOTTER & BACKING (Tier 3 — print this page for the trucks)

BACKING — EVERY TIME

1. Can you pull forward instead? Then pull forward.
2. Walk the FULL path yourself. Look up (wires), down (holes, chocks), both sides.
3. Back IMMEDIATELY after walking — or walk it again.
4. Path not walked, not clear, or on a live road → get a spotter. No spotter available → you don't back.
5. Window down. Radio on. Back at walking pace.
6. Lose sight of the spotter → STOP.

SPOTTING — EVERY TIME

1. You spot. You do nothing else.
2. Stand where the operator sees you — never behind, never in the swing.
3. Standard signals only. Closed fist / crossed arms = STOP.
4. Check your OWN path before you step backward.
5. Machine stops the second you're out of the mirror.

APPROACHING A MACHINE

1. Stop outside the swing radius.
2. Get the operator's eyes. Wait for them to come back to you.
3. Hands off controls, attachment down — then approach from the side.
4. No eye contact = you do not exist to that machine. Stay out.

STOP

Anyone can call it. Everything stops. Stop first, ask second.

10. PROOF & RECORDS (Tier 4 — what has to exist when this is done right)

Accountability tie-in (NU-PPL-403) — proposed, needs the rev in §13: backing without a walked path or spotter where one is required = Class C (6 pts). Operating with a ground man inside the exclusion zone = Class C. No seat belt on a ROPS machine = Class C. Spotter doing a second job while spotting = Class A (1 pt) first time, Class C repeat. Overriding a STOP = Final.

11. NEVER

• Never back without a walked path or a spotter. "It's ten feet" is how every backing incident starts.
• Never spot from behind the vehicle or inside the swing radius.
• Never keep working when you've lost sight of your spotter.
• Never approach a running machine without eye contact returned.
• Never stand or reach into the swing radius, an articulation point, or under a raised attachment — running or parked-with-bucket-up.
• Never ride a machine that isn't a seat with a belt, and never operate a ROPS machine unbelted.
• Never leave a machine unattended with the attachment raised, the brake off, or the key in it where the public can reach.
• Never argue with a STOP. Stop first. Every time. From anyone.

12. DONE WHEN

• Every crew can say the two legal ways to back (walked-and-clear, or spotter on signals) without looking it up.
• A spotter is named by name on the JSA any day a machine runs with ground men — checkable in ten seconds.
• Mirror/camera/alarm condition appears on every day's pre-trip record, every truck.
• The B-SPOTTER badge board shows at least one badged spotter per crew.
• A month of JSAs and DVIRs shows the records existing without the Supervisor chasing them — per NU-GOV-004, the Daily Loop is where this gets checked, not a special audit.

13. WHAT THIS DOCUMENT NEEDS FROM ADAM

1. Approve NU-QAL-601-A (badge cards, draft v1.1) — §2 enforces by badge only after the badge exists. Until then it enforces by JSA name, which works but doesn't scale.
2. Approve the NU-PPL-403 additions in §10 — the proposed point classes for backing/spotter/seat-belt violations are not enforceable until they're in the points system. Say yes, adjust, or strike.
3. Confirm the backup-alarm and camera fitment across the 7 trucks and 3 mini-ex — which units have working alarms, which have cameras — so §8 inspects what actually exists. [Adam: fill — unit-by-unit]
4. NU-FLT-312 (DVIR) build decision — §8 leans on a document that's still on the gap list. It's already P1 on the register; this SOP is one more reason it's next.
5. Confirm the NU-SAF-100 parent element number for the header.
6. One training decision: does the eye-contact rule and the field card in §9 get added to the Day 1–2 book (NU-PPL-405) so every new hire has it before their first site? (Recommendation: yes — it's a half-page and struck-by doesn't wait for week two.)

NU-SAF-116 · Rev 0.1 DRAFT · Nova Underground · Parent: NU-SAF-100 · Certification tie-in: B-SPOTTER (NU-QAL-601-A) · Uncontrolled when printed.