There was a sea of high-viz moving to an interactive Welcome to Country when more than 500 council staff came together for National Safe Work Month.
The event at Logan Metro Sports & Events Centre was a valuable and sometimes confronting experience about road safety.
As the largest employer in the City of Logan, council has a duty of care to help ensure our staff get safely to and from work.
Our council fleet of vehicles is huge – in number and in size. Our staff operate more than 140 heavy vehicles and 350 light commercial and passenger vehicles.
For the transport and construction teams, this means undertaking some high-risk work.
The work they do is to provide services to the community – road repairs, renovating and building new facilities and infrastructure upgrades.
They keep the City of Logan running smoothly.
I was humbled to speak at the event and it’s an issue that is close to my heart, having lost my brother in a traffic accident.
One of the things I spoke about was the vast impact that accidents can have on others. The ripple effect of a serious crash can be devastating – on work colleagues and, of course, loved ones.
It’s not only about workers being responsible for their own health and safety, but ensuring their colleagues have a safe and healthy workplace.
The event included an interactive demonstration of a simulated traffic crash and how the jaws of life work.
Melissa McGuinness, Queensland’s 2021 nominee for Australian of the Year, shared a moving story of her son’s death in a road crash that also killed four other adults.
Melissa’s heartfelt story resonated with staff and the reality of how quickly lives can be changed in the event of a traffic crash.
Council is responsible for managing health and safety risks in all of our work settings to ensure people can go home to their families each night.
Our staff are our most valuable asset and council is strongly to committed to a positive safety culture.
It was great to see support from Queensland Police, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, Queensland Ambulance Services, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator – and the Spirit of the Red Sand for their Welcome to Country.
The initiative is a prime example of different levels of government and the community working towards creating safer roads and working environments.
Other safety events planned for October include workplace ergonomics, mental health and resilience, healthy ageing and manual handling.
A big thanks to council’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing team for their dedication and hard work in pulling these important events together.
