Mine workers are being reminded to use designated vehicle parking areas after a bulldozer collided with a ute during a driver changeover at a Queensland coal mine.
Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) issued the reminder after releasing dashcam footage of the incident, which showed the ute being struck and pushed about three metres by a reversing bulldozer.
The footage shows the ute driver attempting to move clear of the bulldozer before the collision occurred.
While the light vehicle sustained significant damage, the driver escaped injury.
RSHQ’s Chief Inspector of Coal Mines Jacques le Roux said there was a “significant risk of a fatality for an event that could have been avoided”.
Initial investigations by the regulator found operators had been routinely parking in an undocumented location to conduct crib-time driver swaps.
“Even though it was not the designated location to stop and swap operators, over time it had become normalised as the location and that created danger,” le Roux said.
“What should have been a simple driver swap almost turned into a fatality because of a sequence of failures including a failure to establish positive communication and not following proper procedures.”
In response to the incident, RSHQ has urged site senior executives and mine operators to review and enforce parking procedures and implement safe work instructions for hot-seat changeovers.
The regulator also reminded sites to apply the industry’s 50/30 rule when entering stockpile areas.
Under the rule, workers should establish positive two-way communication with the machine operator or site supervisor from 50m away before stopping their vehicle outside the 30m exclusion zone.
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