FT on track for safety record

Paul Smith, General Manager, Operations

FORESTRY Tasmania has achieved a significantly improved safety record for the first six months of this financial year, with only one lost time incident up until December.

It is quite an achievement and means we are well on track to come in significantly under our performance measure of less than 10 for the first time this financial year.

It is also considerably less than in previous years, with 12 lost time incidents in 08/09 and 11 in each of the previous three years.

The improved performance can be linked to our focus on crash free driving that is beginning to have an effect and is making people more aware of the issues.

The Safety Circle safety awareness program, which increases staff awareness of safe working practices has also been a big positive.

Both programs have an emphasis on managing risk, attitude and awareness.

Staff are encouraged to be aware of what they are doing, to recognise constraints such as time and fatigue and to make sure they stay within the limits of safety.

We have operating procedures and equipment and safety measures in place but at the end of the day everyone is responsible for their own safety and their own actions.

In the field operations area Huon, Mersey, and Murchison Districts have been incident free for more than one year while Perth Nursery has been incident free for more than five years – an outstanding performance