From peat bog rescues to beating back injury, safety awards have it all
An innovative method of rescuing people from peat bogs, plus a schoolchildren’s YouTube music video to combat onsite back injuries, have showed how health and safety can either get you of trouble or prevent you running into trouble in the first place.
Both projects received first-prize recognition at this year’s Safety Groups UK (SGUK) Awards for Innovation and for Development Through Education, presented this month.
The Innovation Award, and the Lord Cullen Trophy, went to Omagh-based Adman Civil Projects Limited for its pioneering approach to emergency peat rescue. Presenting a practical response to a very real health and safety issue in the workplace, the judges said the entry demonstrated innovation throughout and pointed to a lasting legacy.
'Watch Your Back'
Craigie High School, in Dundee, claimed the SGUK Award for Development Through Education - and the Scottish Chamber of Safety Silver Punch Bowl - for a project featuring its ‘Watch Your Back’ video (as part of its LOcHER project). The judges were highly impressed with the way the team took a traditional health and safety issue in back injury to create “an enjoyable and effective educational process” through a video and music lyrics that can be shared more widely to leave a lasting impact (it was also Highly Commended under the Innovation Award).
These awards recognised safety groups that have involved learners of any age in an initiative that demonstrates effective educational engagement to advance health and safety. This tends to include those in school, at college, in apprenticeships, in university or early in their employment. The Adman Civil Projects peat rescue project was also Highly Commended for this award, winning praise for the way it engaged workers and the wider community, including the rescue services and provided a good model for others to follow.
Second prize for the Innovation Awards - and the Stevenson Shield - went to Sonamatic RAIS for its entry, ‘Sonamatic Magnetic Laser Cleaning and Inspection Crawler”. This was acknowledged by the panel for its innovative technical response to significant health and safety risks linked to the entry of vessels for cleaning and inspection, an important area of health and safety in the workplace.
More information on the free-to-enter SGUK Awards, including guidance and entry forms for next year, can be found here: Awards (safetygroupsuk.org.uk)
