Crew bound for national safety contest

A crew from Warwick and Stanthorpe will compete in a national field safety competition in Coffs Harbour after finishing a close second in an Ergon Energy event in Townsville last week.
The Southern Downs operations crew of Matthew Dwan, David Cartmill and Morgan Taylor (Warwick) and Matthew Hendry (Stanthorpe) was pipped for top honours by a Cairns crew, but will join them at the two-day Electricity Supply Industry Field Day’s competition in July.
They also won the gold shield in the regional service delivery stream section of the competition.
The Toowoomba Communications crew of Richard Kruger, Simon Fleming, Kyle Schmidt and Stephen Broksch claimed the silver shield in the transmission and projects stream and only narrowly missed out on qualifying for the national competition.
The two Darling Downs crews earned the right to contest the Ergon Energy event after being ranked among the organisation’s seven safest field crews over the past year.
Their rivals hailed from Cairns, Barcaldine, Yeppoon, Biloela, Theodore, Monto and Townsville.
In a fierce contest, the crews competed in critical safety challenges designed to put their expertise to the test. Challenges included Pole Top Rescue, Switchboard Rescue, Cross Arm Change, Secondary System Isolation and CPR.
Ergon Energy’s acting executive general manager operations Paul Jordon said the seven crews were the “best of the best” – chosen from the top of the rankings in Ergon Energy’s Comprehensive Safety Indicator (CSI) results.
The CSI results take into account safety outcomes such as injuries sustained as well as proactive safety measures such as on-time reporting and completion of safety visits, to measure the organisation’s safest and most professional crews.
“The Field Safety Day competition was an opportunity to reinforce our crews’ commitment to safety, while also recognising and rewarding them for their unwavering dedication to serving their local communities,” Mr Jordon said.
“In recent times, many of these competitors have been at the front line of our restoration efforts, responding to Queensland’s cyclone, flood and storm events, often spending many days away from their families.
“They truly personify what it takes to be the best in our industry: a steadfast commitment to safety, determination to get the job done, and broad technical expertise.
“Regardless of the results, the greatest reward for the competing teams was that they could learn from their peers and strengthen their commitment to safety.”