Safety at the forefront at MTW

The team at Mount Thorley Warkworth (MTW) have again reached the finals of the NSW Minerals Council Safety Innovation Awards with their latest improvement, the 'Duck In'.

Duck In is a collision avoidance system that manages interactions between face shovels and rubber tyred dozers.

The innovation was born from a taproot investigation of a collision between a shovel and a rubber tyred dozer. The investigation found controls were needed to alert the shovel operator of any unauthorised entry into his work zone.

Duck In was successfully trialled at MTW in June 2006 and received positive feedback from operators. A full roll out of the system is underway.

Since the system has been installed, there have been no collisions at MTW between shovels and clean up dozers.

MTW General Manager Operations Kim Truter said MTW is known for its innovative culture and is proud of once again finding an innovative solution. Trials to expand the use of the solution to other processes have since started in the dragline operational area.

"Heavy and light vehicle interactions are a high fatality risk, and all RTCA sites can potentially benefit from this innovation for a range of machinery interactions," Kim said.

"Congratulations to all at MTW who contributed to this outstanding innovation."

MTW also won the top prize in 2005 and 2006 for safety improvements to working with grease under pressure and removing employees from the line of fire using wireless real time cameras.