15 November 2012

Costain personnel at the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery site and its satellites at Immingham, Lincolnshire, have marked the remarkable achievement of eight years since their last recordable accident. It is also nearly three years since the last incident that required first aid.

Costain Infrastructure Support Services Divisional Manager, Ian Tully, puts the success down to two things: attention to detail and a policy of ‘My brother’s keeper’ – looking out for colleagues and, if necessary, intervening if potentially unsafe practices are seen.

The team of around 40 staff based on the refinery provides a range of services predominantly civil engineering and construction but are supported by an industrial services team based at a facility in Immingham.  Typical work for the team would be civils maintenance involving concreting, Tarmacing, deep excavations and drainage. In addition, the Projects team carries out similar work but on a larger scale.

The drive for impeccable safety standards intensified following an incident in October 2004, says Ian. “We had quite a serious injury to one of our chaps. After that, we just did things a bit differently, with focus on our behaviour rather than relying on procedures.”

Attention to detail takes many forms. For instance, Ian began to insist some years ago that joiners coming on-site should wear safety gloves. 

Persistence paid off and gloves are now an everyday part of equipment for such trades.

The policy of ‘my brother’s keeper’ “has been absolutely vital” in helping head off accidents, he adds. “There can be around 2,000 contractors during peak periods such as Shutdowns on this site. We’ve said that people’s actions can impact on what we do and if we see something wrong, we intervene.”

“Near-miss reporting is carried out and weekly toolbox talks take place in the site mess room and we are active members of Client / Contractor Safety forums.

“As a small incentive for continuing to keep a spotless record, a social ‘Team Building’ evening is held for team members and their partners if six months pass without an accident.”

• Similar success has been recorded at a ConocoPhillips site at Theddlethorpe, with no safety incidents over the past five years.

Ends