Empowering our people to maintain safe work environments

07/09/2022

Keeping our people, the environment, and communities in which we operate safe from harm is a key focus of our Water Services business.

A large portion of our works involve carrying out high-risk site activities each day. But what happens when things go wrong? And how would we manage such situations?

This is a scenario our Logan Water Partnership team recently considered. To protect our people and ensure they are equipped to manage high-risk incidents, the team partnered with local emergency services operators to develop a trench collapse training video.

The initiative was led by Senior Supervisor, John Holden. It involved creating a mock trench collapse where a worker (dummy) is trapped and needs to be carefully rescued. You can see how the scenario played out by watching the video below.

Chris Yeats, General Manager – Water Services, welcomed the initiative.

“Ensuring our people have the knowledge and tools to safely manage major incidents is essential.

“This initiative is a fantastic example of our Safety and Thought Leadership pillars in action. Having people like John and his team who plan ahead and prepare for the unlikely event of a major incident occurring is critical.

“I’m really proud of the team that developed this initiative and sincerely thank John and all team members who participated in the video.”

John Walsh, Utilities General Manager – Zero Harm said that keeping our people, the environment and communities in which we operate safe from harm is one of our four key business pillars, alongside Relationship, Thought Leadership and Delivery.

“Great to see the visible safety leadership being demonstrated by John and the Logan Water teams. 

“The Downer difference is about empowering our people to maintain safe and sustainable work environments. This video not only builds awareness around trench collapses on our worksites, but will be an important training tool used to ensure our teams are prepared if and when they are faced with this dangerous situation,” said John.

The video will be used as a training tool across the Water Services, Utilities, and emergency services training partners business, and shared with the wider water industry.

Thank you to our delivery partners Logan Water, HH Civil, Diona and SEE Civil who donated plant, time, and materials to this exercise.