Dumas Receives Fourth Safety Innovation Award from OMCSA
Jun 1, 2015
TORONTO, 1 June 2015 – In April, Dumas Contracting Ltd. (“Dumas”) attended the 2015 Workplace Safety North Conference as the recipient of yet another Safety Innovation Award. This is the company’s fourth Safety Innovation Award from the Ontario Mine Contractors Safety Association (OMCSA) in the past six years. This year, the Award was received for the design and implementation of the “Dumas Anfo Tractor Platform” – a step installed on an Anfo Tractor to improve safety and visibility while loading explosives.
Designed by Dumas employees Shawn Rideout and Mike Gaudon, the new platform enables proper three-point contact. The ability to maintain three-point contact – meaning two hands and one foot, or two feet and one hand on equipment at all times – is critical for any construction vehicle. When one of Dumas’ Anfo Tractors (a Torquematic T100C5) was brought to the Dumas Maintenance Facility in Timmins for an upgrade, Rideout and Gaudon identified the inability to make three-point contact when entering or exiting the vehicle as a major safety hazard, inspiring the concept for the redesign.
The original platform design consisted of a single folding step supported by chain and clevis. The step was not identified by green safety paint, and the distance between first step and the platform did not follow standard. The new design includes railing and proper spacing between steps, and allows for three-point contact. The ability to fold the platform away when not in use means that it does not add to the tractor’s dimensions – an important feature in tight underground spaces. After being field-tested by multiple crews, the new platform design was approved as a practical system.
“At Dumas, our greatest resource is the employees that work with us,” said Ken Leavoy, Dumas’ Manager of Health & Safety, and champion of the company’s Safety Innovation program. “We have individuals that improve procedures, tools and methods to make it easier and safer for all Dumas employees, and help ensure everyone gets home to their families safe every day. Dumas encourages these employee innovations and shares them – not only with all Dumas worksites, but with the mining community through the Ontario Mine Contractor Safety Association and the Porcupine Northeastern Mines Safety Group."
With this Award, Dumas has become the first Ontario mine contractor to win the Safety Innovation Award four times. Dumas previously won this same Award in 2010 for the “Dumas Caged Crosshead”, in 2012 for the “Dumas Re-railer Bar”, and in 2013 for the “Dumas Liveman Switch”.
The Safety Innovation Award is presented annually by the OMCSA to a mine contracting company that designs or develops an innovative safety tool that reduces injury, and improves health and safety in the workplace.
Source: http://www.dumasmining.com/AboutUs/Media.aspx?newsID=c86856a3-8246-48a3-9a70-1cda4694eabf