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SAFETY AND HEALTH ALERTS AND GUIDANCE
FOCUS ON MINES SAFETY: REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKES
Engaging with safety and health representatives
In the April 2021 edition of Th!nkSafe, the Department featured an article titled Four focus areas for Mines Safety highlighting specific areas of concern within industry identified by Mines Safety inspectors. These areas include: Hazardous manual tasks Is your site proactively managing hazards associated with manual tasks? Repeat hazard exposure Are hazards and risks being managed appropriately to prevent reoccurrence? Contractor management Is your site appropriately managing the health and safety of contractors? Mentally healthy workplaces Are psychosocial hazards and risk factors proactively managed?
Mines Safety inspectors are focusing on instances where workers have been repeatedly exposed to a workplace hazard – such as vehicles over edges. Inspectors will be investigating whether hazards have been suitably identified and understood, suitable methods of control are in place, and taking appropriate action where necessary.
REPEAT INCIDENTS: MOBILE PLANT FALLING INTO UNDERGROUND VOIDS Since April 2008, the Western Australian mining industry has suffered three fatalities as a result of manned load haul dump (LHD) machines1 falling into underground voids, or stopes. The latest fatality occurred in July 2020, when an LHD went over the edge of an open stope and fell approximately 25 metres. In this instance, the operator was preparing to build a safety bund near the stope edge. There have also been a number of near misses where mobile plant has gone over a stope edge, but the operator has survived. After each of these fatalities, the Department published significant incident reports (SIRs) to alert industry to the initial findings that led to each incident and recommended actions to prevent similar occurrences. Unfortunately, the appropriate controls have not been applied consistently within industry and these kinds of serious incidents continue to occur.
1 An LHD is also known as an underground loader or bogger
| 12 | ThinkSafe vol. 3 no. 2 September 2021
