Traffic safety audits – prepare your workplace!

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland inspectors are heading out to businesses in all industries to ensure on-site traffic risks are being managed effectively.

Poor traffic management continues to pose a significant safety risk at all types of workplaces, with many serious injuries to workers hit by trucks, mobile plant, cars, utes and forklifts on-site. Just last year:

• a worker was killed on a rural property when he was crushed by the wheels of a planting machine that was being towed by a tractor
• a worker's legs were severely crushed when he was struck by a reversing forklift in the loading bay of a timber factory
• a worker was fatally crushed between a reversing forklift and a truck at a transport yard
• a compact track loader was moving on a construction site when it reversed into a worker who suffered serious leg injuries.

The audits are a serious reminder for people who have control over a work site that they must consider and manage on-site traffic risks, ideally through higher order controls such as:

• physical barriers separating pedestrian routes (separate vehicle entry and exit points)
• dedicated areas away from people for loading and unloading
• physical isolation or separation by distance and/or guardrails or fences
• wide traffic routes so vehicles or plant do not enter pedestrian only areas
• barriers, fences or exclusion zones isolating workers or pedestrians from roads.

If you would like one-on-one support to improve your onsite traffic management systems, contact the Queensland Government's Injury Prevention and Management program. This program provides free assessments and guidance tailored to your business's needs by specialist advisors.

Further information

Visit worksafe.qld.gov.au for guidance on how to prepare for an on-site traffic management audit.