Ministerial Statement: RAIL TRACK GANG CHALKS UP 10 YEAR INJURY-FREE SAFETY ...

[ozbob]

Minister for Transport, Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations
The Honourable John Mickel
08/12/2008

RAIL TRACK GANG CHALKS UP 10 YEAR INJURY-FREE SAFETY RECORD

QR's Monto track gang, located west of Bundaberg, has celebrated 10 years with no lost time injuries.

Minister for Transport and Industrial Relations John Mickel today congratulated the rail gang on its impressive safety record.

Minister Mickel met the team, which is responsible for maintaining and repairing rail lines, in Gladstone today to acknowledge the significant milestone.

"Nothing is a higher priority than safety, and we had a terrible reminder of this in the last few weeks with the tragic deaths of two QR staff in the Tilt Train collision in North Queensland," he said.

"The most important thing about this achievement for the Monto gang is that for the past decade, every member of this team has been able to return home after a hard day's work unharmed and able to enjoy their life and loved ones.

"Injuries and accidents are preventable. We cannot simply accept they will happen.

"I applaud this team's efforts to improve QR's safety performance and I encourage them to keep up the good work," Mr Mickel said.

The track gang members, with combined service in QR of over 130 years, are: Aubrey Muller (track maintenance supervisor), Geoffrey Litzow, Brian Ellerton, Wayne Messer (track workers), and Kevin Mitchell (track worker and safety representative).

Aubrey Muller said the gang credited its safety record to the way the team worked together on all jobs.

"Our motto is 'look out for your mates at work'," Mr Muller said.

"The secret to our success is that the team has a positive safety attitude, never turns a blind eye to potential risks, always does quality pre-start briefs, puts in good control measures, and talks about safety issues as a group.

"We also receive a lot of support from management and our safety facilitator," he said.

Safety is QR's number one priority and has a target of achieving no lost time injuries across the whole organisation.

Other QR Services teams which have recently been recognised for clocking up a significant number of safe days (days free of injury, measured since their last injury) include:

    * Cannon Hill and Sunshine structures gangs (more than 3000 days)
    * Merinder track gang (more than 3000 days)
    * Bundaberg track gang (more than 3000 days)
    * RACS Townsville (more than 12 months)

Mr Mickel said QR had increased its focus on safety in the past year, and had contracted world-recognised consultants DuPont to help the company realise its goal of no lost time injuries.

8 December 2008

==============================================================

[O_128]

Actually when i was at cannon hill last wednesday an old man working at the cannon hill wrkshop crossed the tracks as the train was about 100m behind him.