Safe Work Australia has updated the model ‘Code of Practice: Managing the risks of plant in the workplace’ to include guidance on vehicle roll-aways and safe immobilisation.
The national safety body has made the move after a spate of work-related fatalities and injuries that saw machinery operators and drivers as the group with the highest representation of fatalities, and mobile plant and transport as responsible for the most fatalities by industry breakdown. The new Code of Practice includes guidance on control measures to prevent roll-aways, such as parking on a level surface, keeping wheels turned toward the when parked, and using wheel chocks where possible.
Safe Work Australia defines a vehicle roll-away as the unintentional movement of a vehicle because it has not been properly immobilised, such as when vehicle brakes are not adequately applied or engaged during repairs, loading and unloading, or when coupling or uncoupling a truck and trailer. The Code of Practice also emphasises the duty of a PCBU, including those with management or control of the plant, designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers, and installers of plant, officers, and workers in maintaining the necessary safety precautions.
News of Safe Work Australia’s updated Code of Practice to combat vehicle roll-aways comes after the national safety body updated the tower crane model code of practice midway through last year, where it identified tower cranes as “high-risk plant”.
The updated ‘Code of Practice: Managing the risks of plant in the workplace’ can be read here.
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