To mark National Safe Work Month 2023 the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner (OFSC) launches the Heavy Metal Education Campaign, in collaboration with accredited company Ventia. The Campaign provides new educational resources promoting safe work near heavy machinery (mobile plant).

Working with mobile plant is a major cause of injury for workers on construction sites. OFSC data tells us that 13.5% of incidents reported to the OFSC relate to injuries associated with mobile plant. Concerningly, around one-third of all mobile plant related incidents involve the striking, contact or collision of mobile plant with a worker, followed by workers being caught between, in and on plant.

This year’s Safe Work Month theme – for everyone’s safety, work safely – encourages organisations and individuals to prioritise safety and work towards reducing the number of work-related injuries and fatalities to ensure everyone can go home safely at the end of each day. As part of its Heavy Metal Campaign, the OFSC and Ventia have produced a range of educational resources to highlight safe working methods for working in close proximity to mobile plant.  

Campaign resources to be launched in October include:

• A series of interactive 360 degree blind spot e-learnings demonstrating the different operator visibility limits in common mobile plant (large and small excavators, articulated dump trucks, skidsteers, and rollers).
• Toolbox talks on Separating people and mobile plant and on Managing Blind Spots.
• Heavy Metal campaign posters.

Federal Safety Commissioner David Denney said, “Our Hazard 2020 Campaign highlighted the significant volume of mobile plant risk management issues in the industry. While we’ve seen improved safety from accredited companies in managing mobile plant since then, there are still too many people injured every year while working near operating plant. The Heavy Metal initiative we’re launching today features educational resources, freely available on the OFSC’s website, which aim to help accredited companies raise awareness of safe working methods around mobile plant. Through raising awareness, we can help to ensure everyone goes home safely every day.”

Additional mobile plant information and resources are available on the FSC website.

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