forest talk
Time to update Forestry Code of Practice, says coroner also recommended urgent priority to the development A CORONER HAS ADVOCATED KEY IMPROVEMENTS TO of the next phase of the Health and Safety at Work forestry’s Code of Practice. This follows the inquest regulatory framework into the death of Niko Brooking-Hodgson who was In response, WorkSafe said it had taken on hit by a flying 9kg shackle that had snagged, then board the evidence from the inquest in relation pulled free under force, in a forest block near to the need for greater engagement and Napier in August 2016. He was just 24. participation of forestry workers when reviewing Coroner, Donna Llewell, says it is time that processes and amending the ACoP. forestry’s Code of Practice be updated. Niko’s The Forest Industry Safety Council’s (FISC) father, Richard Brooking, said at the inquest that Fiona Ewing says a new safety code will only be he wanted more regulation to see real change, worthwhile if it deals with underlying problems in particularly to the Approved Code of Practice for forestry; the causes, not just the symptoms, of harm Safety and Health in Forestry Operations 2012 (ACoP). FISC’s Fiona Ewing. in our forests. All parties at the inquest agreed that there was no The current ACoP was last revised in 2012 – before policy around line retrieval in the ACoP, and that prior to Mr Brooking-Hodgson’s death the forestry industry did not perceive mechanisation became common and before the 2015 Health and Safety line retrieval as a specific risk, or an operation that required specific at Work Act was passed. This Act included new requirements to involve workers in health and safety, new responsibilities for those further up training. Following his death, a Best Practice Guide for Breaking Out in a Cable the supply chain and a new approach to risk management, she says. She says for the ACoP to succeed it needs to: Harvesting Operation was published. The coroner, Ms Llewell, made several recommendations, including • promote better understanding of risk; that changes be made to the ACoP, that mandatory use of straw lines • promote effective worker engagement; for retrieval be implemented where it was safe to do so, and the • promote ‘better work’ in terms of ‘higher order controls’, ‘safety in design’ and ‘upstream duties’. NZL creation of new unit standards for training around line retrieval. She
Paying the price for poor safety TAURANGA-BASED STEVEDORING COMPANY, C3, HAS BEEN ordered to pay a fine of $90,000 and costs of $20,000 for safety failings which resulted in an excavator being dropped overboard from a logging ship in 2018. C3 had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching its duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and was sentenced Friday, 4 February in the Wellington District Court. Maritime New Zealand’s Central Compliance Manager, Blair Simmons, says that the incident, which took place at Wellington’s Centreport on June 2, 2018, was particularly disappointing given it followed a similar incident at Northport in 2017 where it was “incredibly lucky” that no-one was injured. The previous incident resulted in a prosecution of C3 and another person, with C3 being convicted and fined $240,000. “The excavator, which was being moved between two cargo holds where it was being used to load logs, fell from its lifting arrangement attached to the ship’s crane, hit the side of the ship and fell into the water,” Mr Simmons says. The Maritime New Zealand investigation found several factors contributed to the incident:
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• C3’s standard operating procedure (SOP) for lifting heavy machinery was not developed or reviewed by a qualified engineer; • the lifting technique C3 was using has been identified as poor practice and is no longer being used by other stevedoring companies in New Zealand; • workers were not properly trained in the procedure; • the lifting lugs that were fixed to the excavator were not certified; • C3 did not have a system in place for regularly testing and monitoring its workers’ hearing and vision to ensure they were fit to operate machinery such as cranes. Mr Simmons says the sentencing highlights the importance of staying up to date with industry best practice and having strong training and health and safety systems in place. “While no single factor can be identified as the cause of the incident, there were clearly several serious health and safety failings that needed to be urgently addressed.” C3 was charged under section 49 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 for a failure to comply with duties under sections 36(1), 36(2), 36(3). NZL
