Motivation through engagement. That was the theme of health & safety days at Johnsons Wellfield Quarries near Huddersfield, Yorkshire, on 16 and 17 July.

Johnsons Wellfield, which quarries the famous Crosland Hill York stone, is part of the Myers Group. The idea of the ‘motivation through engagement’ days was to encourage the 200-plus people who attended (including Eric Bignell, the Editor of Natural Stone Specialist magazine) to become actively involved in the health & safety exercises rather than listening to lectures.

As there were so many people, they were split into groups that took it in turns to spend 40 minutes at each exercise. The mobile plant inspection exercise, for example, had each of the groups trying to identify the faults and maintenance issues on a Cat 972.

Some, like the mud on the windscreen and the absence of windscreen wipers, were more obvious than others, such as a cut and bulge on the inside of one of the tyres.

There was a chance to experience being towed in a truck by lime company Singleton Birch and when it came to emergency spill management one of the presenters, Jim Slater, the Johnsons Wellfield Maintenance Manager, was called away to deal with a real emergency on the first day of the event when a high pressure hose split on one of the company’s vehicles.

He returned with the damaged hose and a timely reminder not to check for leaks in high pressure hoses with your hand. He showed pictures of people who had put their hands in front of such leaks when pressures were so high the oil was forced up the veins and arteries of arms, splitting them open.

It should act as a warning to masonry companies with waterjet cutters, where the water pressure is so high it can not only sever your hand, it can force water up through your veins and arteries to your heart – which will kill you.

Eamon Killowe from the Mines Rescue Service had brought his enclosed space van to the event to give visitors a chance to experience what it is like negotiating enclosed spaces wearing a Drager Saver, which gives you 10minutes of breathable air in an enclosed space emergency when dangerous gasses are present.

One session that got off to a bad start with Prof Clare Brown seeming to be failing on the ‘engagement’ theme was the Juice Learning behavioral safety session. But it turned out to be a bit of play-acting fun to emphasise the importance of engaging people in a health & safety culture.

Welcoming people to the health & safety days, James Berry, the Managing Director of the Myers Group, said one of the initiatives his Group was examining was banded pay related to health & safety performance. The aim would be to instill a health & safety culture into everyone in the Group. “It’s about celebrating people who have a proactive attitude,” said James.

Summing up the days’ activities when everyone was gathered together for a conclusion, Richard Noble from the HSE said: “I’m sure tomorrow you will go back to your workplace and see something that will make you say to yourself: ‘I don’t like that’. Don’t ignore it. Tell your manager. You could be helping to save someone.”

The first day of the event was the Myers Group Day, in which many people from the Myers group itself (divisions of which included Johnsons Wellfield, Readymix Huddersfield, Myers Building Supplies, Myers Skip Hire and Myers Timber Supplies) took part, as well as others from Liebherr, Singleton Birch, Holroyds Huddersfield Ltd, Kirklees College, UBU Roadsweepers, Sunny Bank Stone Sales Ltd, Banner Contracts and PHS Besafe.

The second day was the Minerals Products Association Day, attended by more Myers Group people along with Ballast Pheonix Ltd, Aggregate Industries (various locations), CEMEX, Hanson (various locations), Forest of Dean Stone Firms Ltd, Lafarge Tarmac, Hope Construction Materials, Marshalls, Plasmor Ltd, JCB, Lhoist UK Ltd, GSS Training Ltd, CA Blackwell (Contracts) Ltd, Bathgate Silica Sand Ltd and Browns Health & Safety.

The sessions were:

• Environmental Spills – Jim Slater (Maintenance Manager for Johnsons Wellfield) and Andy Wade (Training & Competence Manager for Myers Group)
• Hazard Spotting – Rob Shore, Managing Director of Safety Coaching
• Confined Spaces – Steve Shead and Eamonn Killawee from Mines Rescue Service
• Behavioural Safety – Matt Cleve & Andy Thomas from Juice Learning (plus additional actors)
• Vehicle Inspections – Simon Day, Area General Manager of Hanson
• Towing – Singleton Birch
• Geotechnical – Brian Duthie of Key GeoSolutions Ltd (on the 17^th only)