That is the conclusion of a weekly incident report from the New South Wales Department of Industry covering occurrences at mines across the state.
The beauty of the runaway truck case was that it was caught on camera
The report, which recorded 29 incidents for the week, resulting in 10 injuries, referenced the level two event – of medium seriousness on a scale from 1-3 – as follows:
“At approximately 14:25pm a contractor’s truck operated by the contractor’s employee arrived onsite to deliver parts to the store.
“The operator brought the truck to a stop at the front entrance of the store and alighted from the vehicle. Security camera footage shows the vehicle starts rolling backwards as soon as the employee alights.
“The truck continues rolling backwards [unmanned] past the service area turning upgrade, [and] coming to a stop for a short period.
“It then starts rolling forward [down grade] past the services vehicle area, along the mine access route and past the M&M drift entry portal striking the wash down bay highwall protection concrete barrier adjacent to mine portal entry. No injuries.”
The department recommended operators consider installing hard stops to control unplanned movement of vehicles when parked.
“Furthermore, appropriate training and additional signage regarding ‘safe parking procedures’ should be reviewed and communicated to all employees, contractors and delivery drivers,” it said.
