02:41 pm, Tuesday 31 August, 2010

A Queensland accident research centre will take a closer look at the connection between heavy truck drivers.

Queensland University of Technology’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety will undertake a three-year study that will also look into the effect of safety regulations on driver behaviour.

PhD student Jason Edwards. a member of the research team, said a huge proportion of road fatalities in the state involve heavy vehicle crashes.

“When you look at the Queensland statistics, heavy vehicle crashes result in 20 per cent of all road fatalities and there’s been a lot of different laws that have been passed and a lot of different regulations that are going around,” he said.

“Despite everything that’s happening, even on a national level, there’s still just a really high number of fatalities.

“What we’re really wanting to know is what leads to those things. So there’s a lot of talk about heavy vehicle industry but what we want to look at is what are the cultural and organisational issues that actually contribute to fatigue happening in the first place.”

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02:30 pm, Tuesday 31 August, 2010

Workers of Northern Territory’s provider of electricity, water and sewerage services are leaving their jobs out of fear for their lives, a union said.

Trevor Gauld of the Electrical Trades Union said the utility company’s employees are under pressure to repair a very old network and are concerned for their safety.

“Guys going to work in these high voltage enclosures, trying to get stuff up to speed, and we have some real concerns about it,” Mr Gauld said.

He said they are starting to see people quitting their jobs “because they are actually so concerned about their personal health and safety and wellbeing working in these areas that they are choosing to quit their employment and find work elsewhere.”

According to Mr Gauld, the power outage on Thursday affecting 6,000 Alice Springs customers was attributable to lack of resources.

He said the company has not made any action on reports indicating the lack of resources in several areas.

“We’ve got issues with resources in network areas the guys that go out and work on the lines, we’ve got resource issues with the guys that operate the powerstations and resource issues with the guys charged with maintaining the power station and some of the supporting infrastructure.”

The company said it is 18 months into a five year, $1.5 billion works program. The part of the massive investment goes to replacing, upgrading and testing equipment.

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06:34 pm, Monday 30 August, 2010

The Queensland Government is targeting the commercial fishing industry on the Sunshine Coast in its new safety campaign.

The campaign hopes to improve safety and raise awareness on windlass winch and capstan use.

But key players in the commercial fishing industry in the area said they had not been informed of the campaign, which includes conducting safety audits starting this week.

According to Industrial Relations Minister Cameron Dick, the campaign was developed by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland WHSQ) following a probe into a fishing accident last year.

On 16 November 2009, a skipper’s arm was severed after being entangled in a winch of a trawler.

“WHSQ will be conducting audits of fishing vessels, targeting the use of capstan and windlass winches that are usually used to lift gear at the rear of the vessel,” Mr Dick said.

“Investigations into last year’s incident show there is a heightened risk of entanglement in the moving part of a winch, with potentially fatal consequences.

“Under the bad weather conditions often faced by a fishing fleet, the situation can become worse, affecting the stability of workers operating a winch.”

A member of the Queensland Seafood Industry Association said he had not been informed about the proposed safety audit.

This was echoed by a Mooloolaba trawler owner-operator, who said the commercial fishers operating in the Coast were already tightly regulated, and described the safety audits as surprising.

“Ours is such a highly regulated industry. Every year the boats are safety audited by Marine Safety Queensland,” he said.

“On the Coast the trawler fleet is very conscious of safety. What happened to Steve May was terrible, but it was an accident.

“In my view this is just another example of another State Government department chipping away at the fishing industry without us knowing.”

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06:18 pm, Monday 30 August, 2010

The demolition of Canberra’s bridge on Barton Highway is on schedule and could be open to traffic at the end of the week.

Roads ACT said workers are removing the rubble caused by the bridge collapse around the clock.

construction worker were injured.

An engineering report was released saying the formwork was not braced properly to prevent girders from moving sideways while concrete was being poured.

According to Roads ACT spokesman Tony Gill, demolition work was performed over the weekend.

“The estimate is that we will take between five and seven days depending on the progress and depending on some of the difficulties they encounter when they are trying to protect the existing structure because some of the structure can be salvaged,” he said.

“The concrete pier in the median and the bridge abutment on either side, they can be salvaged. So they just have to be careful how they do the demolition in that area.”

However, Mr Gill has cautioned that demolition has to be done carefully since WorkSafe ACT is still collecting evidence from the construction site.

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02:17 pm, Friday 27 August, 2010

The 25-year-old construction site is reported to remain in a critical condition.

He was crushed between a lift equipment and a concrete beam in an Albert Street site. He suffered serious head and chest injuries.

He was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) where he is in an induced coma.

The building site was closed on Wednesday and it is not yer clear when the construction work will resume.

A Queensland Workplace Health and Safety investigation is currently underway.

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01:58 pm, Friday 27 August, 2010

The widow of a man who was strangled by a bus door said the fine to his husband’s employer was an “insult to the family”.

The 58-year-old man, who worked as a driver for the bus company, died after his neck and head became stuck in the door of his bus in Alice Springs on Christmas eve 2007.

The Darwin Magistrates Court was told the a release switch near the door triggered the incident.

The transport company pleaded guilty on Tuesday to failing to minimise a risk to its worker. It was fined $7,500.

The driver’s widow said she was devastated the court did not impose the maximum fine of $10,000.

She said it was an insult to a worker’s family who dies in circumstances where safety regulations are breached by an employer.

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01:14 pm, Friday 27 August, 2010

A man has fallen to his death in Geelong at the corner of Seaside and North parades on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old man was working at height when he fell eight metres from a grain silo. He was declared dead at the scene.

According to a WorkSafe spokesman, the man was putting a tarpaulin on the bunker just before the fall.

WorkSafe is investigating the cause of the incident.

It is the 16th recorded workplace fatality in Victoria in 2010.

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02:23 pm, Thursday 26 August, 2010

The formwork, an engineer’s report says.

construction accident.

The engineer’s report, which was prepared for Roads ACT, revealed the formwork was not braced to stop the girders moving sideways while concrete was being poured. This led to excessive stress on the structure.

ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said he will not make any comment on the report until Worksafe completes its inspection.

ACT Work Safety Commissioner Mark McCabe said an investigation will be conducted while the bridge is being demolished.

“We have identified points in the demolition where it will need to stop, we’ll need to collect some of the material that’s there and take it away for analysis and consideration,” he said.

“The real evidence that we need is probably lying on the roadway underneath all of that mess.”

The head contractor for the project released a statement accepting the findings in the report.

“We are also holding our own internal inquiry into our processes to make sure nothing like this ever happens again,” the statement said.

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02:01 pm, Thursday 26 August, 2010

A driver has pleaded guilty to failing to take reasonable care of others on Tuesday after running over a workmate with a 40-tonne truck.

The Ballarat Magistrates Court heard the incident took place at the Ballarat Gold Mine. The 37-year-old driver gave his 17-year-old colleague a lift back to the worksite after a break.

The court was told the teenage worker was climbing out of the vehicle when he slipped on the staircase and fell to the ground.

Prior to moving the vehicle the driver checked his mirrors, although he apparently failed to see his fallen workmate.

The truck then rolled over the teenager and he died at the scene.

The court was told the driver had only been operating the truck for three days, had little experience driving trucks. The court also heard the teenager was the driver’s first passenger.

The court heard no safety procedure on transporting employees to and from their breaks was in place.

The court is expected to hand down the sentence today.

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01:40 pm, Thursday 26 August, 2010

A construction site on Tuesday.

The incident took place just before 7am (AEST) on the corner of Charlotte and Albert streets in Brisbane city, where the 25-year old tradesman was working on an elevated platform.

It was reported the man was injured while operating a piece of lift equipment. The cause of the accident was not yet determined.

Kane Pearson of the Builders and Labourers Federation said the worker had been working alone at the time of the incident.

“No one saw the accident,” he said.

The man sustained serious head and chest injuries. He was taken to by paramedics to Royal Brisbane Hospital.

The union met with about 300 workers who walked off the site around 11am (AEST) because of safety concerns.

Mr Pearson said workers were concerned about evacuation.

“We’ve had numerous things fall through screens on this project, some of them onto the road, over the last 18 months,” he added.

The construction company released a statement, saying workers were being offered counselling and other support.

The company said it is fully cooperating with authorities.

“A separate internal investigation is also underway,” the company said.

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