Safety achievements recognised
From the Autumn 2008 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.
Forests NSW’s Central Region has reviewed haulage operations and created an award winning road safety strategy. Photos by David Barnes/Forests NSW Image Library.
It would be true to say that Forests NSW new CEO, Nick Roberts, has a passion for safety.
He has made it his mission to improve safety and make sure that everyone in the organisation shares that responsibility.
“It is about developing a belief that accidents are preventable and an incident free workplace is achievable,” Nick said.
Forests NSW has long recognised safety achievements and its premier award in this area is the John O’Rourke Safety Award.
John O’Rourke was appointed in 1972 as Forests NSW full-time safety officer responsible for instituting the first detailed recording system for accidents statistics and promoting safety as a leading management issue.
The award was initiated upon John’s retirement in 1981 to recognise his contribution to safety management.
Forests NSW health and safety manager, Christine Di Bella, considered it important to maintain the history of John O’Rourke and the award, so with the assistance of operations and fire manager Western Region, Don Nicholson, who provided the history of John O’Rourke, she was able to embellish the history in a framed certificate.
“The certificate symbolises the large piece of wood that was traditionally transferred from workplace winner to workplace winner,” Christine said.
This year’s award has been broadened to go to the workplace judged as having the best safety record and making a significant contribution to safety innovation in their local workplace or within Forests NSW as a whole.
Central Region is the recipient of this year’s award for its ‘Rural Roads Safety Strategy’ and the hard work undertaken by the new combined Health and Safety Committee.
Christine said Central Region was located in a large area with a rapidly expanding population and faced some unique challenges in relation to haulage operations.
An example is the township of Kendall, south west of Port Macquarie, which is located on one of the major haulage routes used from harvesting operations.
Christine said following the death of a child injured by a car after being dropped off by a school bus in 2006, the community’s safety expectations were raised.
“Central Region log merchandising staff undertook a review of haulage operations conducted through Kendall with the aim of improving safety not only for haulage operations but for other road users,” Christine said.
Following extensive consultation, a road safety strategy was developed which included effective management of UHF communication between buses and trucks; providing haulage information to bus companies; incorporating school bus route information into haulage contractor site safety plans; and reducing truck movements by increasing the proportion of high productivity vehicles such as B-doubles.
Christine congratulated Central Region on all its hard work which she said showed that John O’Rourke’s legacy was in good hands.
Sarah Chester - Public Affairs & Media, Albury
