08:33 am, Thursday 30 September, 2010

Changes are being proposed for the commercial vehicle drivers in South Australia.

According to Road Safety Minister Jack Snelling, the proposal can positively impact safety for all road users.

He told the Parliament the guidelines will be more rigorous than the nationally-agreed medical standards for granting drivers’ licences.

“While the vast majority of commercial vehicle drivers will be unaffected, the authorisation of the use of the guidelines will allow a tougher regime to be applied on a case-by-case basis as the Registrar of Motor Vehicles deems appropriate,” Mr Snelling said.

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07:53 am, Thursday 30 September, 2010

A two-month campaign has been launched by WorkCover NSW, with inspectors carrying out a statewide inspection of concrete formwork are properly trained.

Since February this year, formworkers in the state no longer need a Certificate of Competency, but they must still undergo proper safety training.

The decision not to require certificates of competency for people working with formwork or safety standards.

Furthermore, an extensive research and consultation revealed no discernible difference in the incident and fatality rate in NSW when compared to the other jurisdictions, where licensing is not required for formwork and explosive-powered tool operators.

The concreting services industry employs about 53,000 NSW workers.

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07:06 am, Thursday 30 September, 2010

A mariner who was killed on board a floating storage, north of Dampier in WA, placed himself in a precarious situation, a report reveals.

The 43-year-old man died on December 24 2008 after being hit in the head with a heavy line while crew members disconnected the ship from its mooring buoy.

They were trying to avoid an approaching cyclone.

The winch drum when the line unwound abruptly.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report was released on Tuesday, stating  the seafarer had placed himself in a dangerous position by standing between the cheeks of the winch drum.

The report said he could not properly assess the load which had been placed on the line because of where he was standing.

The safety procedures for disconnecting from the mooring buoy were not clear, according to the ATSB.

“The ship’s procedures for connecting and disconnecting from [the buoy] did not provide explicit, succinct and unambiguous guidance,” the report stated.

“There were differences between the procedures and the actual shipboard practices that increased the level of risk associated with those operations.”

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07:36 am, Wednesday 29 September, 2010

WorkCover NSW is looking into the circumstances surrounding yesterday’s construction site.

WorkCover sent an inspector to the site after being notified of the incident, where a 41-year-old construction worker was hurt by a piece of falling scaffolding.

John Watson, General Manager of WorkCover’s Occupational Health and Safety Division, said the accident should remind everyone of the need for scaffold workers to be vigilant about workplace safety.

“Working from heights, particularly with scaffolding, poses significant safety risks,” he said.

“The erection, use and dismantling of scaffolding must at all times be carried out in accordance with workplace safety laws and Australian Standards.

“All employers have an obligation to provide a safe workplace for all of their workers while workers need to also comply with relevant safety policies.”

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07:13 am, Wednesday 29 September, 2010

A port worker has barely escaped injury after a coal stack in a Gladstone port came tumbling down on Sunday.

The 50,000-tonne stockpile suddenly collapsed and partially crushed the ute being driven by the worker.

A witness said “a number of workers were around” when the incident took place.

“Another man was close to the collapse, but he managed to get away just in time,” he said.

A spokesperson for the ports company confirmed the ute was in the stockpile area during a changeover of dozer drivers.

According to the spokesperson an incident report was delivered to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland on Monday.

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06:54 am, Wednesday 29 September, 2010

The absence of a simple interlock device in a plant has cost the livelihood of an experienced baker, the SA Industrial Court was told.

A baking company pleaded guilty to breaching section 19(1) of the Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Act 1986, having failed to provide safe systems of work.

It was fined $4,500 by the court on September 22.

In November 2007, an employee was cleaning a dough-proofing equipment at a Torrensville site when her arm became entangled with its moving parts.

The court heard the shoulder injuries sustained by the woman were so severe that “she can no longer function effectively as a baker”.

SafeWork SA told the court that a simple interlock device would have powered down the machine while the worker was cleaning its inner parts.

According to the safety watchdog, the incident could be traced back to the lack of a risk assessment after a perspex panel was put in.

“Our experience has shown that any modification to machinery in a workplace can bring with it any number of potential new safety issues,” says Executive Director, Michele Patterson.

“Any time a machine is altered, it should be subject to a fresh safety analysis as if it was brand new.”

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08:36 pm, Tuesday 28 September, 2010

The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) has entered into an enforceable undertaking with WorkSafe Victoria after a tank explosion seriously injured a worker last year.

In April 2009, a 31 year-old DSE worker was told to weld a leak in a 400-litre fuel tank at an Alexandra depot.

“The unsupervised worker was told the tank needed to be ready by the following day – he wasn’t told that he would need to clean the tank or remove any fuel,” said Executive Director for Health and Safety Ian Forsyth.

“When he began to weld the tank, it exploded. He suffered second degree and superficial burns to around 8% of his body, as well as other injuries from the force of the blast.”

The enforceable undertaking requires DSE to create a senior full-time health and safety position to work across its regional depots.

It also entails DSE to invest $120,000 in a safety leadership program. Half of the amount will be allocated to dangerous goods training, while the other half is allotted for training of managers and supervisors in health and safety.

DSE will also spend $10,000 for advertising an alert on the dangers of welding fuel drums. The ads will run in regional papers around the state.

“As this situation clearly shows, welding or cutting a container which contains traces of flammable substances can be extremely dangerous,” Mr Forsyth said.

He said it was not risks associated with the work.

“Even if there’s a suspicion of flammable substances, hazard identification and cleaning procedures need to be carried out by someone who is trained to do this kind of work,” he said.

Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, an enforceable undertaking is provided as an alternative to prosecution. It is a legal agreement requiring an organisation to carry out acts that improving health and safety for employees, which will benefit the wider community.

Since the passage of the Act in 2004, WorkSafe has entered into 13 enforceable undertakings. Two of these were with government departments.

DSE’s progress will be monitored by WorkSafe to ensure the undertaking is being met.

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07:40 am, Tuesday 28 September, 2010

Over $45 million was spent last year in Glen Eira and Port Phillip communities over avoidable work-related injuries, Worksafe Victoria says.

According to the safety watchdog, 17,000 Victorian workers suffer musculoskeletal injuries every year.

In Port Phillip, payments in the form of medical, wage and other expenses for workers involved in falls increased to $35 million.

In Glen Eira, the payments totalled $10.5 million.

WorkSafe has released the figures as part of a campaign stressing that musculoskeletal injuries are not confined to workers whose jobs involve heavy lifting.

“Workers in child care, retail, hospitality and other sectors not normally associated with heavy lifting suffer debilitating injuries every day,” said WorkSafe’s strategic programs director Trevor Martin.

“They’re the most preventable, because simply cleaning up a spill on the floor or providing some lifting equipment eliminates the risk.

“Our message to Victorian employers is that regardless of their industry or business, identifying risks, and fixing them.”

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06:38 am, Tuesday 28 September, 2010

WorkSafe Victoria has withdrawn the charges against three companies over the death of a 17-year-old worker at a Ballarat gold mine.

The young man was working at the mine when a truck hit him in December 2008.

An training and instruction; ensure a person is not exposed to risk; and ensure workplace access is safe.

At the committal hearing in the Ballarat Magistrates Court yesterday, WorkSafe withdrew all the charges due to insufficient evidence against the defendants.

The mother of the teen worker expressed her disappointment, and vowed to explore other avenues for further legal action.

“We will not give up until we have tried all angles,” she said.

According to WorkSafe spokeswoman Charlotte Bull, withdrawing charges at committal hearings is not uncommon.

“One of the purposes of a committal hearing is to test the strength of the evidence,” she said.

“In this case it was determined the evidence wasn’t strong enough.”

In a separate hearing last month, The 37-year-old vehicle accident.

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03:46 pm, Monday 27 September, 2010

Workplace Standards Tasmania has been notified of the death of a 17-year-old boy after his four wheel bike collided with a train in northwest Tasmania yesterday.

The teenager was driving his motorbike on a private access road in Spreyton when he was struck and dragged for some distance by a cement train around 12 pm (AEST).

The train, which was pulling empty wagons, traveled another 200 metres before coming to a complete stop.

According to police, the boy failed to heed a stop sign at the rail crossing.

A resident at the scene said he usually sees young motorcyclists driving irresponsibly chasing trains, and was concerned someone would get hurt.

The rail network company released a statement expressing their shock and sadness over what happened.

It has offered counselling to the family of the teenager, as well as those who witnessed the vehicle accident.

The company is conducting its own investigation. The Rail Safety Regulator had also been notified of the incident.

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