Leaders in safety recognised

LEADERS in safety innovation in business and industry have been recognised at the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia's Safety and Health Innovation Awards 2009.

Argyle Diamond Mine was the winner in the engineering category, for its underground agitator trucks.

Argyle had identified the need for purpose built trucks for shot-crete delivery and developed a fleet with underground parking and braking specifications.

Alcoa World Alumina Australia won the award in the people category, with the development of its element remover for dust collectors.

The concept, designed by shop floor employees as part of the company's site-suggestion scheme, relieves loading on the wrist while performing the highly repetitive task of element removal in the dust collectors and improves working posture.

Macmahon Holdings won the systems category for its work safety system, an integrated suite of equipment and procedures that had improved safety outlooks for crusher maintenance.

Judges praised the recognition that a major maintenance function, such as crusher shut-down, was best viewed as a single event rather than a series of discrete operations.

CME chief executive Reg Howard-Smith congratulated the 32 companies who made submissions across the categories of people, systems and engineering, for showing a proactive approach to safety.

"These companies are recognising potentially hazardous situations, and adopting strategies to minimise or eliminate the hazards," Mr Howard-Smith said.

Judges showed the greatest response to innovations that reduced risks in mobile plant, manual handling and maintenance activities.