►Railway Engineers in demand – here
and in the UK
►Programme
alert - ABC Four Corners, “Too
Hot to Handle”
►Coroner’s
report into death of race marshal
►Fire destroys Melbourne fertiliser factory
The Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce has released a discussion paper on the proposed Workplace Deaths and Serios Injuries Bill to be introduced into the Autumn session of the Victorian Parliament.
The paper says, “VECCI opposes the Bill.”
Wheelchair Safety Taskforce Progress
Report
The Wheelchair Safety Taskforce, appointed by the Bracks Government in Dec 2001 has completed its report with recommendations about how to address the issue of wheelchair safety at rail level crossings. A three page Progress Report has been publicly released.
The full report will be released after being reviewed by the Minister for Transport.
The Minister will present the Taskforce’s findings to the Australian Transport Council in May, with a view to developing an Australian Standards for level crossing design. In the meantime, the government is working with rail operators on upgrading level crossings in the short term.
Contacts:
Santos’ “Annual Report for South Asutralian Cooper Basin Operations" is available at the website of SA Department of Primary Industries and Resources (PIRSA):
Santos’ Annual Report 2001 (Petroleum Act)
The 147-page report provides a summary of all activities undertaken by Santos in the SA Section of the Cooper and Euromanga Basins. It details seismic exploration, well site, flowline, pipeline and trunkline, and production facility activities within exploration and tenement areas.
The report is required under Regulation 33 of the SA Petroleum Act, 2000 and covers the period from 1 Jul 2000 to 31 Dec 2001.
Information on one safety incident and two serious environment incidents are included. The safety incident resulted in the death of one employee, but details are not included. The event is subject to investigation.
Another report released by Santos under the Act is covered in the following bulletin:
The Auditor-General ‘s Office is undertaking a Performance Audit entitled “Management of Food Safety in Victoria”. As part of the audit, the Office intends to assess local government processes to determine whether there are appropriate plans and strategies and registration, compliance and monitoring systems in place to minimise illness in the community.
On 23 Mar the Auditor-General advertised for parties to tender for the task of surveying councils, food businesses, industry and community groups, licensing authorities and government departments.
The need for this study has been dramatically underscored by an incident on 27 Mar - more than 250 people were struck by food poisoning after community festivities in northern Melbourne.
The WA Government has released the parliamentary inquiry report (Vol. 1) into the Feb 2001 fire at a toxic waste storage site at Bellevue, Perth. The report is dated 13 Dec 2001.
The Report is Volume 1 and considers the health effects of the fire, as a priority. Volume 2 will consider regulatory matters.
The Report includes:
2 findings
1 recommendation
1 direction to the Minister
The Report can be found at:
http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/
select: committees>current>Economics and Industry Committee>Reports and Evidence>Report No. 1>Report Details
For a more extensive summary:
http://au.geocities.com/jom3205/misc/bellevue_vol1.htm
Other background material:
Toxic Timebombs
ABC’s Radio National Background Briefing programme, 9 Dec 2001.
Transcript with pictures.
Too Hot to Handle ABC Four Corners programme, 11 Feb 2002. Transcript, with pictures.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released its report into the grounding of the Australian Maritime College’s training ship Wyuna. The ship grounded twice in the Tamar river, Launceston while on night-time training exercises.
The media release and full report are available from the ATSB’s website:
ATSB >Marine Reports
Railway Engineers in demand – here and in the
UK
Both Australian organisations and the giant UK group, Rail Track, are seeking people in Australia with the highly refined skills of Railway Engineers.
Three employment positions have been advertised nationally:
· Senior Rail Operations Systems Officer – Dept. of Infrastructure,Vic
· Signal Systems Manager – Australian Railroad Group, WA
· Railway Engineers – Rail Track, UK
The Premier said,
"The Government has also acted on the recommendations of the Longford Royal
Commission and has now implemented the most rigorous safety regime for hazardous
sites anywhere in Australia.”
· 1999 Turkish earthquake
· 2001 Indian earthquake
· 1997 Canberra hospital implosion
· 1998 Longford gas plant explosion
The paper argues that in each case good regulations were in place, but were not implemented, and asks “why?”. Six possible reasons for regulation failure are provided:
http://www.ieaust.org.au/policy/publications.html
From an advertisement in The Age (Melbourne) 23 Feb 2002 (p.32):-
The Victorian Minister for Transport has established a Taskforce to examine wheelchair safety at rail level crossings.
The taskforce was established following two fatalities in late 2001 in Melbourne.
A public forum has been organised to enable the community to assist in developing recommendations. The forum is at the Melbourne Town Hall, Yarra Room, Thu 7 Mar, 1:00 – 4:00 pm.
Book your place: 9655 6000 or [email protected]
Santos’ Fitness for
Purpose (FFP) report has been published on the website of the Department of
Primary Industries and Resources of South Australia (PIRSA).
The report can be
found at:
The report relates
to the company’s petroleum operations (mainly natural gas) in the Cooper and
Euromanga Basins in the far north of South Australia.
The report is
at:
An FFP is required
under the S.A. Petroleum Regulations (2000). The following aspects must be
addressed:-
·
publc
safety
·
protection of
the environment
·
security of gas
supply
The FFP has
considerable overlap in concept with the Safety Case regulations applied under
other Australian jurisdictions. Santos’ FFP may be the first publicly released
“Safety Case” in Australia.
In mid-2001, the
company’s Liquids Recovery Plant at Moomba suffered a fire that caused one
death. Santos’ report on this incident is expected to be released via PIRSA
shortly. Last week, the Australian Financial Review reported that the
company had suffered a pipeline
break due to corrosion.
New marine safety authority for
Victoria.
The Victorian authority responsible for regulating safety and pollution control on Victoria’s ports and waterways, the Marine Board of Victoria, has been superceded by a new body – Marine Safety Victoria. Their website is:-
http://www.marinesafety.vic.gov.au/
The Victorian Infrastructure Planning Council released an interim report in Oct 2001 discussing planning issues to do with Victoria’s growth.
One issue raised is the growing traffic pressure on the West Gate Bridge. The report foresees that by the year 2007, the bridge will be clogged with traffic, and flags the need to address this problem. One option that may need to be considered is a new crossing of the Lower Yarra, or augmenting the existing bridge. The options that are being discussed in the press are:-
· another bridge
· a tunnel
· a second tier added to the existing bridge, or
· widening of the existing bridge
The report also points to the need to maximise the use of rail links for both freight and passengers.
At this stage, no firm proposals are being presented. A final report will be issued in mid 2002. Public comments are being sought.
It should be emphasised that, at this stage, the ideas for a new crossing are more brainstorming thoughts, rather than firm options. Also, they are not being canvassed by the Infrastructure Council, but by the press. The Council’s report does nothing more than warn that the traffic, at current growth reates, will exceed the bridge’s capacity by 2007.
The report is available from: http://www.ipc.gov.au/ (Infrastructure Planning Report – Interim Report October 2001)
Links to the Four Corners and Background Briefing reports on the toxic fire in Perth, Feb 2001, can be found on this web site (HAZOZ) under “Articles”.
A spill of solid urea into Stony Creek, Footscray West, Melbourne killed about 80 eels, some fish and frogs. The spill is thought to have occurred on the 5th or 6th, and appeared to enter the creek from a stormwater drain at Cala St. Urea reacts with water to produce an alkaline ammonia solution - pH readings of up to 9 were taken. The stretch of creek down to Cruickshank Park was effected. The creek was flushed by the water company, and heavy rain on the 7th also helped to dissipate the chemical. The EPA is investigating.
While Stony Creek is by no means a pristine piece of wilderness, it is a clean, flowing stream, clearly looked after by the council and residents. Ducks like it.
Programme Alert - ABC Four
Corners, “Too Hot to Handle”
Mon, 11 Feb 8:30 pm,
Melb., (repeated Tue 12 Feb,1:00
pm).
This week’s programme reports on the circumstances behind one of Australia’s worst toxic fires, which occurred in Perth in Feb 2001. Serious regulatory failings are exposed and the political fallout is examined.
ABC’s Radio National Background Briefing broadcast a
story, “Toxic Timebomb” on this event on 9 Dec 2001. The transcript is
available at: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s436839.htm
.
One astonishing aspect of this event – among many - was that firefighters found no gatehouse manifest and turned to a nearby resident for knowledge of the stored chemicals.
Coroner’s report into death of race
marshal
The Victorian State Coroner, Mr Graeme Johnstone, today released his final report into the death of race marshal, Mr Graeme Beveridge. Mr Beveridge died when struck by a racing car wheel at the the Albert Park Racetrack on 4 March 2001, during the Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The report makes eight recommendations. Coroners’ recommendations are not enforcable and the Coroner rarely makes recommendations for prosecution.
One conclusion of the report is that the hazards that led to the death were identifiable.
One of the recommendations is that race organisers establish the postion of Safety Officer.
State authorities have made no announcement as to whether or not they consider there is a case for prosecution. The Occupational Health and Safety Act requires employers to identify hazards to employees and members of the public, and to reduce associated risks as far as is practicable.
The Coroner made reference to the Cullen Report into the 1998 Piper Alpha gas rig fire in the North Sea. That report was seminal, in that it lead to widespread acceptance of the Safety Case approach to the management of hazards in complex facilities.
A key element of a Safety Case is that the company must “demonstrate” that hazards have being adequately addressed before being given licence to operate a facility. Mr Johnstone did not recommend that Safety Case be implemented at the Albert Park Racetrack, but his reference to the Cullen Report and Safety Case should not be dismissed as aside comments.
Safety Case is a regulatory method that sits well with the modern trend towards “small government”. In Australia, it is already in place in several jurisdictions, in one guise or another. It is a method strongly embraced by the Victorian government.
A fire destroyed a fertiliser factory in Bayswater, Melbourne during the night.
No further details to hand.
In September last year, a fertiliser factory in Toulouse, France, suffered an explosion that killed 30 and injured 1,000 persons. The cause has not yet been established. It is thought that 300 tonne of the fertiliser ammonium nitrate exploded.
In Jan this year, a fire at a fertiliser plant in Spain lead to evacuation of nearby districts.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Peter Batchelor today released the final report into the collision between two National Express trains at Footscray on 5 June 2001. The investigation was conducted by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau on behalf of the Department of Infrastructure.
The report lists 22 Findings, 6 Significant Factors and 8 Recommendations.
The collision occurred after an empty express train failed to stop at the last signal before the Footscray platform, and ran into the rear of a passenger train about to depart the platform. The signal was at red. The report considers it likely that the driver of the express train had fallen asleep. He had failed to slow the train, as required, when passing the previous signal.
The driver had been taking prescription drugs and was unfit to drive due to his medical condition, which was unknown to the company. He was 5 months overdue for his requisite medical examination. The company did not have access to the driver’s medical record prior to taking over the rail operation.
The “dead man’s handle” that is designed to activate the train’s brakes if the driver is incapacitated did not perform this function. Upon passing the red signal before the platform, the train’s brakes were automatically applied, by a “train-stop” mechanism located on the track. However, the train was at full line speed (70kph) and could not stop in the distance available, and collided with the other train at about 30 kph.
This incident was the third major collision between trains on the Victorian network since privatisation in mid-1999.
Links to the full report and the Minister’s media release, as well as pictures of the scene, can be found on this web site (HAZOZ) under “Rail”.