16 February 2014

Rugby League legend Graham Lowe has launched a pilot study that will use GPS units to try to cut forestry deaths, by sounding an alert when workers are tired.

Fatigue has been blamed as a cause of the industry's awful record - 10 forestry workers were killed in accidents last year, sparking an independent investigation into safety conditions. A coronial inquest into eight of the deaths is also scheduled for May.

With business partner Rachel Lehen, Lowe has formed a company, Lowie Fatigue Management. They have taken GPS monitoring vests used by professional athletes, and remodelled them for forestry workers.

Lehen said it's known that tired workers were more likely to make bad decisions and cut corners. She said industrial health and safety had in the past concentrated on safety measures and "grossly overlooked" individual health. "People should not be dying while in the forest."

Staff employed for HarvestPro, one of New Zealand's biggest logging sub-contractors, will begin wearing the vests within six weeks.

HarvestPro northern manager Roger Leaming said: "Just to have some objective measure of fatigue is priceless. At this point, I've got nothing, no means of judging how impaired someone is."

Leaming said one of his loader operators fell asleep at the wheel with his machine spinning in circles. He couldn't be woken even by workers throwing woodchips at the windows. Workers who manually attach fallen logs to lines to be towed out are among those most at risk. Leaming says studies suggest their workrate was equivalent to running at least a half-marathon (21 km) every day.

"Football players are measured for all that stuff, and we believe forestry workers deserve the same," says Lowe.

It's eventually possible that all crews wearing the vests could be centrally monitored and told when they need to rest. Lowe said ACC, Worksafe New Zealand and Council of Trade Unions were all aware of the study.

Source: Sunday Star Times. To read the full story, click here.