Horror prediction: ‘More mining workers will die’

A review of fatal accidents at Queensland mines and quarries over the past 20 years has found many deaths were as a result of workers being put into situations they were inadequately trained for.

QUEENSLAND’S mining industry has been slammed for overseeing an unsafe working environment that will likely cost another 12 lives over the next five years.

A review of every fatal accident at the state’s mines and quarries over the past 20 years has found the mining industry’s own fatalistic view of itself as a “hazardous industry” is helping keep things that way.

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The review, order by the Government following a spate of recent mine deaths, found a large number of deaths were because a worker was in a preventable situation they were inadequately trained for, with the controls meant to protect them being ineffective, unenforced or absent and with no or inadequate supervision.

“The six fatalities that occurred between July 2018 and July 2019 have been described by some in the industry, media and politics as evidence of an industry in crisis, but a bleaker assessment is that this is an industry resetting itself to its normal fatality rate,” report author Dr Sean Brady wrote.

His report found that both the mining industry and public appeared to expect mining to be dangerous.

“This fatalism may be the biggest stumbling block to preventing the industry taking the next step,” it said.

Among Dr Brady’s 11 recommendations is that the industry recognise the causes of fatalities were not simply “human error, bad luck, or freak accidents”, which had the potential to mask underlying system failures.

A look at the 47 deaths found 17 involved no human error at all, 17 involved a lack of training, 10 involved faults people were aware of but had not fixed and nine fatalities were in situations where near-misses had happened prior to the death. In some cases, it wasn’t the first time a death had happened in a similar way.

The majority involved at least one failed or absent control that could have prevented the death.

The state’s regulator was also criticised for its “cumbersome, ambiguous and difficult-to-use” incident reporting system that encouraged under-reporting.

The report found unless the industry made significant changes, the fatality rate was likely to continue at current levels.

“Past behaviour suggests that in order of 12 fatalities are likely to occur over any five-year period,” it said.

“If the industry continues to take a similar approach to safety, using the same philosophies and methodologies adopted over the past 19-and-a-half years, then similar safety outcomes are to be expected.”