Karviná Mine: At the top in safety. The number of injuries is going down

KARVINÁ – The exceptional effort put into the improvement of safety standards at Karviná Mine has delivered excellent results. In eight months, the improvement has become visible both in comparison with the same period last year and in comparison with the results achieved in other mines. The most rigorously monitored safety indicator of the frequency of injuries to the number of shifts worked is on average 8.2 at OKD mines, at Karviná Mine it went down below 8.

There were 48 reported work injuries in total at the Karviná Mine in the first eight months, that is 16 less than in the same period last year. The improvements were achieved by a joint effort of the mine employees and contractors. The number of work injuries per year went down by 11 (from 52 to 41) in the case of the mine employees and by 5 (from 12 to 7) for the contractors.

„One of the special measures designed to improve the safety standards at our mine includes regular monthly safety briefings and implementation of a uniform safety management system at both sites of the mine. And of course we use all available means and methods of work in the area of health and safety which are used at all other mines too,“ said the H&S manager for the underground and surface work, Marek Kučera.

To increase the safety awareness of the team there is a quarterly safety competition „Safe Workplace“ which runs at all OKD mines. The September safety briefing of the Karviná Mine management, headed by the Director Pavel Hadrava and with the participation of managers responsible for operations in individual sections also focused on the analysis of extraordinary events, the causes of reported injuries and the consequences they had on those affected.

(Bohuslav Krzyžanek)