Road Safety Week has concluded with further recognition of Fulton Hogan’s growing contribution to road safety.

Last night (Thursday 19 November) Fulton Hogan won two awards in the Australasian Fleet Champions Awards, including the premiere award. Dr Bryan Pidwerbesky was honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Road Safety award, recognising more than 30 years designing safer roads, with a particular focus on skid resistance. Bryan is pictured receiving his award from Waka Kotahi’s Senior Manager Integration – Safety, Health and Environment, Jenny Dickinson.

Under the auspices of Brake – The Road Safety Charity – the awards were held in a virtual ceremony across Australasia.

Fulton Hogan also won the Fleet Safety Award for the Certified Safe vehicle safety verification programme in New Zealand.  For a decade, Cert Safe has added safety features to vehicles to improve the safety of our truck fleet – the goal being all trucks having the same safety features, irrespective of their age.

“With around 5,000 pieces of mobile machinery of different ages and types we need to be systematic about how we enhance their safety features. Key to this has been careful safety reporting, and having a robust system for enhancing and verifying the safety of the vehicles,” says Mechanical Engineer Graham Eaton.

“Cert Safe means the company can design dangers out and ensure all plant is brought up to our standard.”

Fulton Hogan’s General Manager HSQES, Tim Talbot, says the award underlines Cert Safe’s value.

“I believe Cert Safe is our biggest advance in plant safety and machinery in the last 15 years because it’s built on a commitment to engineering out risks rather than trying to control risks with paperwork,” Tim says. “This is a foundational pillar of our safety philosophy, and it’s made possible by having the engineering and mechanical resources necessary, and a board that hasn’t walked away from spending the money that’s required.”

The Cert Safe standards have been revised and upgraded more than 50 times over the decade.  After-market safety additions include park brake alarms with internal and external warnings, deck props for tipping bodies, tail door trip and lock release-warning lights/alarms, ground-operated tarps to avoid trips and falls and lockable battery isolation switches for lock out / tag out.

Last year, Cert Safe introduced minimum standards for subcontractors’ plant, equipment and equipment and trucks they hire from hire companies to work on Fulton Hogan sites. Their vehicles can be safety checked by either Fulton Hogan staff or accredited third parties.