Workplace Health and Safety Queensland flags more operations this year
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ) is raising awareness of its safe immobilising heavy vehicles and trailers campaign, flagging the issuing of improvement notices following related inspections.
The campaign began in 2017 and WHSQ flags that it is ongoing, with more inspections to come this year.
At the start of the campaign, it noted: “Between 2012 and 2016, there were 23 fatalities and other incidents in Queensland where a worker was crushed or hit by a heavy vehicle or trailer because it was not immobilised correctly.”
Read about WHSQ’s recent safety blitz on vehicle loading cranes, here
The organisation continues to seek to identify the causes of unsafe immobilisation and provide businesses with resources on how to manage these risks and to ensure compliance.
“Inspectors visited over 400 workplaces during this campaign, identifying that either the vehicles braking system wasn’t being used or another method to immobilise the vehicle or trailer safely,” WHSQ says.
“Inspectors issued over 50 improvement notices around inadequate systems of work, training and maintenance.”
The improvement notices were issued for:
- not immobilising trucks or coupling and decoupling trailers safely
- inadequate maintenance and risks when working under trucks and trailers
- no or inadequate safe system of work
- inadequate training, information, supervision or instruction.
WHSQ sees one way to improve safety as being for businesses to introduce safety requirements in their contractual arrangements for vehicles entering their site.
It is understood the organisation is impressed with the approach of Woolworths in identifying the potential high risk of uncontrolled trucks rolling and its requirements for heavy vehicles to have design controls, such as braking system alarms.
WHSQ’s Safely immobilising heavy vehicles and trailers report includes a case study involving Queensland company Russell Transport related to the successful retrofitting of hand-brake alarms to its fleet of 97 trucks five years ago.
It urges those firms and individuals considering the same to consult with truck’s manufacturer first.
The full report and supporting information can be found here.