Mineral Mines & Quarries Inspectorate | Alert | No.432 V 1 | 02 August 2023
Light truck travels through bund into creek bed
What happened?
On July 5 2023 a light truck carrying three drilling contractors between exploration drilling rigs at a mine site failed to negotiate a bend on a mine road. The truck contacted the bund, travelling over it and landing in the adjacent creek bed below. The three workers on board the truck suffered injuries and were taken to hospital for treatment.How did it happen?
The investigation in ongoing, however it is believed the factors below contributed to the incident:
- The truck was being operated at excessive speed.
- The driver applied the brakes too late to slow for the corner.
- The workers were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the incident.
Recommendations
All site senior executives should:
- Identify, implement and enforce the controls necessary for the safe operation of vehicles.
- Ensure all workers on site understand their obligation not to do anything wilfully or recklessly that might adversely affect the safety and health of someone else at the mine.
- Ensure all workers on site understand how they can report safety issues at the mine.
- Ensure contractors have provided appropriate Safety and Health Management Plans (SHMP) to the mine, and that these plans have been integrated into the site's Safety and Health Management System (SHMS).
- Ensure contract workers are supervised and monitored to make certain they comply to the requirements of the SHMP.
- Ensure seatbelts are worn in vehicles at all times when travelling.
- Consider the fitment of engineering controls such as governors or electronic speed limiters to vehicles when they are expected to be on mine sites for an extended duration.
- Consider the fitment on in-vehicle monitoring systems for vehicles on sites.
Investigations are ongoing and further information may be published as it becomes available. The information in this publication is what is known at the time of writing.
We issue Safety Notices to draw attention to the occurrence of a serious incident, raise awareness of risks, and prompt assessment of your existing controls.
Contact: Rob Henson, Inspector of Mines , +61 7 3199 8001 QldMinesInspectorate@rshq.qld.gov.au
Issued by Resources Safety & Health Queensland
Placement: Place this announcement on noticeboards and ensure all relevant people in your organisation receive a copy, understand the content, findings and recommendations as applicable to their operation. SSEs should validate that recommendations have been implemented.
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