Site planning

We are now going to have a look at site planning and what sites can do better and what sites can do more. Now, I have worked with a lot of big companies across the UK and across the world actually on this exact subject, in the UK, what we tend to be very good at is ticking boxes rather than actually being proactive. We are very reactive. We react after the incident has happened, we put things in place once the problem has occurred and gone wrong. And it is probably never going to go wrong ever again, or it certainly would not go wrong in the next couple of years, unless we have done something dramatically wrong. But being proactive means having things in place if something should go wrong that we can then very quickly upstage or bring out of the box to integrate the site with the services that are going to be coming on your door. So as an incident... As a site manager or as a health and safety manager on your site, when the emergency services arrive en masse, which is what is going to happen, can you give that accurate information? Do you know where your risks are? Do you know where you can park vehicles? Do you know the access and egress? Do you know what3words are for the front gate?

All of this sort of stuff is important. And we need to actually factor that in. A lot of people understand their site, but do not understand what is going to happen when something goes wrong. And we need to look at that better. From your perspective, Justin, when you arrive as an incident commander, what are you going to want that site to have done in a perfect world? What would you really want?

I would like them to have integrated with the first responders on site. I would especially, on a large site like this, expect to be met and escorted directly to the scene within.

Do you think sites like this should have their own rescue team with equipment to buy time until you can get there? Do you think that sort of training and that sort of equipment is key to the first initial hit?

I think it is, but I think it is also got to be measured against the cost of that and whether it is worth it or not. There are certain companies that do that automatically, so there is a theme park that has high road access teams, for example, because they happen to have entertainment roller-coaster type rides, etcetera. Some of them have their own on-site medical capability, but it will all depend upon how much... What the cost is for the business. I think the big thing is, A, do not plan in isolation. Yeah, it is a good standpoint, but once you have come up with a basic plan, then you need to start talking to the other emergency services and talk to them all, bring them together in one meeting to be able to discuss because everyone is got a different point of view. Mapage on arrival, is it up-to-date? Contact phone numbers, are they up to date? Have people changed? Have numbers changed? And exercise your plan preferably with the emergency services, because actually, that is the only way you will know whether or not it is going to be effective or not.

So if you arrived at the scene, at a place like this... This quarry, if you were met by the quarry manager who basically gave you a pack with maps in with contact details in, with the risk areas. He got his own first aid team that was skilled with a higher level in first aid and had a bit of first aid kit and a first aid box that will actually go to help you when you initially approach the site. That is going to be the way forward. That is going to be the way you should do this.

But all that is exceptionally useful and will help in the initial stages of the incident. The chaos at an incident starts at the beginning. If you can take care of the first 30 minutes yourself, by having some of these things if you can ease the process of the emergency services arriving on mass and bear in mind on we are not talking about one fire attender and one ambulance here. It is a large footprint when all three services descend upon a site. And even somewhere as large as this site here, if you think about ambulance parking for 100 ambulances, where are you actually going to put them?

From your perspective, agent, when the site phones in their first 999 call, because you are going get it first, is there anything from your side that you think could be done better or is there any information that you want from a site that will give you a better understanding of what is going on early days?

The caller needs to think about what information they are going to pass, and it needs to be concise and so straight to the point. Certainly, the first aiders need to work with the management at sites to have a plan that they know that come the day, they are going to put into the process. Now it does not have to be just for a major incident, they can have it on a single person incident, and that is the time to practice and get the information right. And have the processes polished. So when a larger-scale incident comes along, they know the remit... They know what they are doing, and it is a lot slicker when it happens.

So for you, the importance really is the accuracy of where it is, so the main site you are going to go to?

Certainly the location. Certainly, if you look at this location and the expense of it, you are talking... We need to get access and egress right. Because you are going have a lot of resources coming to one area. Not all coming from the same place, they are going come from a multitude of areas, from different railroads, different ways and large potential to cause roadblocks, traffic jams just because we all got the right information and we could have a lot of assets running around trying to find a place.