Safety performance
A good safety record, but there's more to do to make it zero.
Safety performance is measured by recordable injuries. Recordable injuries include those that result in one or more days away from work (lost time injuries) and injuries where an employee or contractor cannot perform all or any part of their normal shift (restricted work day injuries). These combine to form a measure known as lost time injuries (LTIs). The lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) is the number of LTIs per 200,000 hours worked.
Our 2009 LTIFR was 0.30 compared to 0.46 in 2008.
The all injury frequency rate (AIFR) is the number of injuries and medical treatment cases per 200,000 hours worked. Our all injury frequency rate has been steadily trending downwards in recent years and we are pleased that during 2009 the number of overall injuries and medical treatments decreased by more than 10.5 per cent. Our 2009 AIFR was 0.68 compared to 0.76 in 2008.
While we acknowledge the great efforts of our people in achieving a favourable safety performance compared with the Australian national average, our goal is to eliminate all injury and illness from our workplace and this remains an ongoing priority.
Vehicles and driving-related incidents will be an area of focus in 2010 following an increase in the number of vehicle incidents during 2009. Preventing hand injuries will also continue to be an area of focus in 2010. During 2009 it was observed that hand injuries made up about half of the actual injuries occuring in the business, while vehicle and driving incidents accounted for about 40 per cent of significant potential incidents.
Contractors account for more than 46 per cent of exposure hours at Rio Tinto Coal Australia, and have experienced a higher proportion of incidents and injuries compared with employees. Contractor management workshops were held in 2009 to determine the principal issues that prevent contractors from delivering better safety results and actions to improve safety performance. A contractor management specialist will support this work in 2010.
In 2009, Kestrel Mine won the EK Healy underground mines rescue competition and placed third in the annual Australian Coal Mines rescue competition. Hunter Valley Operations achieved first position, followed by Bengalla in second position, in the 2009 Hunter Valley Open Cut Mines Rescue competition.
