New system makes dense forests safer for loggers

A SAFETY management system designed to support forestry workers is ‘‘no silver bullet’’, but will help reduce dangers loggers face in the industry, says its maker.

Mike Alexander, director of Fast Harvesting Ltd, figured if dog collars could be used to track hunting dogs, then they could be applied to workers on the ground in dense forests. Known as fallers and breaker-outs, they often can’t see the person controlling the machine hauling two-tonne trees out from under their feet.

Alexander developed Logsafe, a safety system that tracks and monitors those on the ground, and gives visual aids to hauler operators working up above.

‘‘It was just trying to make the environment safer for the guys in the field. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s another pair of eyes out there,’’ Alexander said.

Alexander rolled out a prototype system on his Tokoroa operation in 2011 and had refined it since then.

Traditionally, communication systems in cable logging operations were made up of toots, alarms and radios, he said.

The year 2013 was particularly bad, with 10 people losing their lives while working in forestry.

Earlier this month, forestry company M&A Cross Ltd pleaded guilty to breaches of safety laws resulting in the death of Tokoroa man Charles Finlay in 2013.

Logsafe managing director Joseph Brolly said the industry had learnt a lot from 2013. ‘‘What we’re trying to do is address the key danger areas in forestry – which are breaking out and falling.’’

Faller monitoring goes beyond the traditional faller radio checkin system and allows for faster response times to injured fallers in emergency situations, Brolly said.

Along with emergency buttons that transmit GPS co-ordinates to a monitor, the Logsafe system has a ‘‘man down’’ alarm that beeps if the handset is on an angle of less than 45 degrees for more than two minutes and activates emergency alerts if the faller doesn’t get up within 30 seconds. ‘‘With Logsafe, the emergency alert would be raised two-and-a-half minutes after the faller was struck unconscious,’’ Brolly said.

Foreman Pete Campbell has worked in the industry for more than four decades and said in the old days, men who were injured sometimes died in the forest because it was so hard to find them.

‘‘This system is peace of mind for the guys up there [in the hauler]. There’s nothing worse in this game if something happens and you feel you may have helped contribute to it.’’

The Independent Forestry Safety Review released in October revealed the forestry sector was New Zealand’s most dangerous work environment. It blamed a culture of complacency around workplace safety for the sector’s high fatality rate.