FATALITIES AND MAJOR INCIDENTS

fatalities and major accidents

Tragically, there was a fatality in our operation during 2007/08.

On 22 May, a contractor was fatally injured while operating high-pressure water jetting equipment at our Port Kembla Steelworks.

A review of the systems relating to high pressure water jetting work was undertaken. The contractor company later produced a safety alert which was shared across the company.

Following the fatality, at BlueScope Steel all employees and contractors around the world participated in Stop for Safety sessions in June to discuss the incident. In preparation for these sessions, employees and contractors were asked to consider two key questions:

• What tasks do you undertake at work that you feel are high risk?
• Is there a safer way to do the work we do?

They were to look critically at the work they do and to think about these questions as they go about their job. When they convened for the sessions, employees and contractors spent time discussing these questions and working to find solutions to the situations they identified. Any items requiring immediate attention were addressed straight away.