Improving vehicle and driving safety
One of Rio Tinto's greatest risks to employees is associated with vehicles and driving. The use of light vehicles on public roads and interaction between light vehicles and heavy mobile equipment at mine sites are the main culprits.
A Group wide initiative has been started to encourage and maintain a greater level of safety awareness around vehicles and driving.
The necessity is borne out by the fact that in the last five years half of fatalities at Rio Tinto's managed operations have been linked to vehicles and driving. An analysis of root causes showed that behaviours, distractions and breaches of procedure accounted for 71 per cent of incidents while mechanical failure accounted for only 15 per cent.
The investigation into causes led to amendments to Rio Tinto's Vehicles and driving standard and to improvement of the Light vehicle guideline, against which Rio Tinto managed businesses and operations are being audited. In 2005 a guidance document on vehicles and driving was issued to offer additional information on some specific areas and to highlight leading practices.
Although the information and suggestions offered in the guidance document are not mandatory, personnel at the businesses and operations are finding it of assistance in the development of action plans to address requirements contained in the Standard and the Light vehicle guideline.
For example, the Standard requires a comprehensive risk assessment identifying conditional and behavioural factors that affect vehicle and driving safety: fleet management, rollover prevention and protection, proximity devices, and vehicle monitoring systems. Some behavioural factors are addressed, such as journey management and training.
Examples of items in the Light vehicle guideline that are discussed include: journey management plans, control measures to prevent unauthorised vehicles and pedestrians from entering areas containing heavy mobile equipment, and performance measurements to monitor improvement in the area of vehicles and driving.
Annual assessments of defensive driving programmes are being conducted throughout the Group. Checklists are being used to focus drivers' attention on vehicle condition, traffic, road works, driving conditions and their state of mind. Computer based mining equipment simulators are in use at many operations. Operator simulator training at Kennecott Utah Copper's Bingham Canyon mine in the US has resulted in a sharp reduction in incidents, and Argyle Diamonds, Hamersley Iron, Robe River and Coal & Allied do not hire operators until they have been assessed in a simulator.
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