Greetings Members,
We are keen to share with the membership an update on the work being undertaken in the above space.
From July 2022 till the end of January 2023 we have received advice of 39 IRB Rollovers (involving 25 different clubs across the country with 32 rollovers occurring in the North Island and seven in the South Island). The majority of these occurred during new Driver training sessions.
We have reported five injuries to Maritime NZ as these injuries were complex orthopedic injuries (broken bones). Three of these injuries happened in the Southern Region.
We have started sharing Lessons Learnt from accidents and injuries that we investigate internally and then share with Maritime NZ shortly. We will be sharing some snippets from relevant injuries investigated – https://www.surflifesaving.org.nz/club-management/health-safety/lessons-learnt
On two occasions we have sent out Safety Alerts after feeling the need to share information urgently – this information went to IRB Drivers, IRB Instructors, Examiners, and Clubs.
The feedback received from this approach was positive from members about the relevant information targeted for relevant members. This is only an avenue we use where we believe there is urgency in getting information out to clubbies.
We appreciate clubs reporting when you have had rollovers and/or injuries in the IRB’s and as you can see we are starting to see some really helpful information coming through. Please remember also to share if the Driver or Crewperson falls out of the IRB or the IRB has a collision or a grounding incident.
We are working with Maritime NZ and WorkSafe closely and this relationship continues to be developing very positively.
We are working also with WorkSafe around taping into some support from them which we hope will involve a specific survey to all IRB Drivers – watch this space at the conclusion of the season. Some ideas we are talking about is them supporting us with the development of audio visual simulation programming.
We are working on some new resources:
We will be developing Instructional videos around safe crewing/positioning and the importance of good clear communication between IRB Driver and the Crewperson – we plan to have these filmed in the New Year and out and available for training in the off season. These will be pitched to both the Instructor and candidate as a resource but will also double as a fantastic resource as a refresher for us all.
Members making up the Injury Reduction and Prevention Working Group are:
Belinda Slement (National Education Manager), Dave Hickey (National Powercraft Officer), Dave Clark (Powercraft Advisory Committee Chairperson), and Scott Weatherall (National Health & Safety Advisor).