A runaway train and “Reasonably Practicable”

Our WHS article this week provides an overview of how a workplace can be prepared for the unexpected and unlikely by complying with WHS legislation.

In Western Australia a train driver, on his way to Port Hedland, had to stop his freight train and get off to inspect one of the cars. Somehow, while the driver was inspecting, the train began to take off by itself. The driver was unable to jump back on board to stop it. As the train built up speed it was eventually clocked at an average speed of 110km as it hurtled towards its destination.

The only available solution to eliminate the risk of death and disaster from the driverless, runaway train heading to Port Hedland at high speed was to derail the train before it got there. Not any easy task considering the train consisted of locomotive consist [Ref 1] of 4, pulling 268 cars, each carrying iron ore. Despite the challenge, the train was successfully stopped in a controlled derailment, and no one was injured or killed. But the damage and repair to the four locomotives, the cars, and about 1.5 kilometres of train track was estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

How can you avoid having an unlikely disaster in your workplace?

Per Section 17 of the WHS Act, a PCBU must manage risks as far as is reasonably practicable. How?

The answer lies in this term "reasonably practicable."

What is "reasonable practicable" is covered in Section 18 of the WHS Act. The factors include “the likelihood of the hazard or risk occurring”, and "the degree of harm that might result from the hazard or risk”.

Therefore, potential harm has to be eliminated or controlled even though it may be unlikely to occur. In our story about the runaway train, it may be highly unlikely that a runaway, driverless train would speed into a populated area and cause chaos and havoc. But the potential harm of death and disaster if it did would be unacceptably high so that risk has to ideally be eliminated or controlled extremely well.

Elimination of risks would the ideal outcome.

In Court cases, this is how the judge assesses the case and establishes the degree of culpability of the business owner or company director.

The term “risk management” is explained at page 5 of SafeWork NSW’s Code of Practice: How to Manage Health and Safety Risks:

“Risk management is a proactive process that helps you respond to change and facilitate continuous improvement in your business. It should be planned, systematic and cover all reasonably foreseeable hazards and associated risks.”

And the process of risk management includes taking “into account the possibility of thoughtlessness, or inadvertence, or carelessness, particularly in the case of repetitive work or mundane tasks” (see ref 1).

The train incident in WA is a compelling illustration of the importance of managing WHS risks as required in WHS section 17 and section 18, by eliminating risks to health and safety so far as reasonably practicable; and if that is not possible, then do everything reasonably practicable to minimise the risks.

Without knowing the details, may it have been as simple as the train driver forgetting to put the brakes on the train? Maybe there was a mechanical fault, and thus no fault of the driver? There could be a lot of reasons. But regardless, it is still an example of risk management failures even if is traced back to a fault with servicing the locomotives or cars resulting in an unfortunate situation for the driver and the town of Port Hedland.

Note:

The WA train incident is now being investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau which is Australia’s national transport safety investigator. Also, the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator is investigating to see if there had been any breach of the Rail Safety National Law. And BHP is also conducting an investigation.

Ref 1. A locomotive consist is how many or what type of locomotives make up a train. An example of a locomotive consist could be a number of diesel-electric locomotives coupled together to provide the power to a train. E.g if a train has three locomotives at the front it is called a "locomotive consist of three." Both “locomotive consist” and “train consist” refer to the same general concept. However, a locomotive consist is the total or number of locomotives used to pull the train. A train consist, on the other hand, is the total of the cars and locomotives that make up the whole train. 

15th November, 2018 (Revised 31st July 2024)