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Teach kids to stay away from construction sites

Area schools have less than two weeks left before recessing for the summer break. Kids are no doubt eager to get out of the classroom and into the outdoors as the days grow longer and the weather warmer.

Summer also, famously, is construction season, especially in the Upper Peninsula, where only a few months may be available to get major projects done before the snow returns.

And at least one major area contractor is warning adults to know where children are heading when they go out to play.

“At Bacco Construction Company, we want to remind all parents that construction sites are not a playground and have many potential dangers,” the Iron Mountain-based business advised earlier this week.

It would seem obvious that any area where workers wear hardhats likely isn’t an ideal place for children to be hanging out.

But children don’t always see the risks when “intrigued,” as Bacco aptly put it, by the mammoth equipment and piles of oversized pipes or other materials that can be at construction sites. For them, it can seem a fascinating land of giants.

For companies trying to get work done, it’s a distractions they’d rather not deal with, Bacco said.

“There are many blind spots for the equipment operators who rely on their training and the training of their coworkers to safely identify the constantly changing hazards on a jobsite,” Bacco officials said.

Even during off hours, an active construction site is not a place for children, they said.

Some sites may have security measures in place to discourage entry. But the reality is, if a kid wants to get in, they often find a way.

So it falls on parents or caregivers, Bacco said, “to teach your children to stay away from construction sites and the equipment” rather than pointing fingers and casting blame after something has gone terribly wrong.

“Safety is priority with construction companies throughout the state,” Bacco stated. “If we all work together, through awareness, we can keep everyone safe.”

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