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News - General News Safety

BHP Billiton changes the rulesSafety first: Mining companyBHP Billiton found that add-on

safety accessories on utessuch as the Toyota HiLux werenot all they were cracked up tobe.

How the worlds biggest miner dug up new evidence on utesafety

25 September 2012

By IAN PORTER

THE worlds largest miningcompany, BHP Billiton, hasprompted the worlds largestvehicle maker, Toyota, toelevate two of its key models HiLux and LandCruiser tofive-star crash safety status asquickly as possible.

BHP has decided to onlypurchase light vehicles primarily one-tonne utilities andfour-wheel-drive wagons which have achieved the maximum five-star rating under the independentAustralasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) or overseas equivalent.

After a thorough assessment of vehicle-related safety, the mining giant is alsoprohibiting the installation of certain aftermarket equipment and is urging carmanufacturers to offer more factory-fit technology in light commercial vehicles,such as intelligent ignition keys and advanced in-vehicle monitoring systems(IVMS).

The companys new policy is likely to have an impact on all manufacturers of utilities and commercial 4WDs thanks to its buying power around the world, andthe fact that the decision also applies to vehicles brought onto its mine sites bycontractors.

BHP itself owns or leases about 10,000 light vehicles at its 80-odd mine sitesaround the world, while its contractors operate a further 45,000 vehicles.

Left: BHP Billiton's David Jenkins.

Toyota has already announced that itwill produce an out-of-sequence refreshon the HiLux to lift it to a five-star crashrating from October 2013, while theLandCruiser 200 Series will befive-star-rated from the first quarter of 2013.

The Japanese auto giant has alsoadmitted there is no replacement for therugged LandCruiser 70 Series, whichdue to the unavailability of electronic

stability control (ESC) and side curtain airbags will never achieve a five-star ratingand is expected to be discontinued within the next five years.

This is despite the development of an all-new dual-cab model and the recentintroduction of a safety upgrade which finally includes an anti-lock braking system(ABS).

When BHP did a survey of its light vehicle fleet a few years ago, it found 90 percent of the vehicles in use around the world were not fitted with ESC, few hadcurtain airbags and some did not have even dual front airbags.

BHP Billiton safety and security vice-president David Jenkins said a significant

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> News | General news page | Safety news and reviews | - BHP Billiton changes the rules

eral News Safety - BHP Billiton changes the rules | GoAuto http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/643562FE2ECE4...

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number of the companys vehicles had ABS.

In the past we had a high number of light-vehicle incidents and some vehiclerollover fatalities, although the last rollover fatality was some considerable timeago, Mr Jenkins told a meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers Australasia in Melbourne.

Mr Jenkins said that even when the same model ute was bought in differentcountries, it would have different safety specifications.

The industry dealt with this by retrofitting equipment, in p articular rollover

protection systems (ROPS).

But Mr Jenkins said mission creep meant operators added more and moreequipment such as battery isolation switches, jump-start receptacles, bullbars,rollover protection bars, fire extinguishers and IVMS.

We kept putting more and more stuff on our vehicles but, actually, our vehiclesafety record didnt improve that much, he said.

Mr Jenkins said BHPs records on significant incidents from recent years showed19 rollovers, with most involving a partial rollover and only one involving a roll of more than 360 degrees.

The company experienced far more accidents involving light v ehicles being runover by 300-tonne ore movers in open-cut mine pits.

So, BHP clamped down on pit licences to reduce the number of light vehicles inthe mines. On one site, pi t licences for light-vehicle drivers were cut by 75 percent.

If youre not there, you cant get run over, he said.

Furthermore, the company encouraged drivers who used their utes only tocommute to the mine site to switch t o safer sedans.

In the pits, w here there was sufficient space, the company also segregated thetraffic by giving the light vehicles their own road in parallel with the track used byore trucks.

BHP decided to test utes see if all the expensive aftermarket additions beingtacked on to them improved safety.

The company took four utes at the end of their leases to NSWs road safetyresearch unit, Crashlab, and had them put through some typical accidentsituations.

All the utes had bullbars and three had rollover protection inside the cab.

The 64km/h frontal offset crash showed that a ute fitted with a bullbar suffereddeformation in the footwell area, with the accelerator and clutch pedals ending upcrossed over.

The standard vehicle had no deformation in the footwell when it was crash-testedin 2006.

Mr Jenkins pointed out that the BHP vehicle fitted with ROPS and bullbar weighed250kg more than the standard ute.

The rear seatbelt foundation also failed not seen in the standard vehicle test resulting in a potentially fatal blow to the head for the rear-seat passenger.

The 75km/h rollover test was more startling. The vehicle without ROPS was usedfirst and turned through 90 degrees on to its side.

The vehicle was still usable, so Crashlab ran the test again, only this time 35kg of weight was added in the upper cabin to represent the ROPS system. This time,the vehicle turned straight over on to its roof.

He said this did not mean a ROPS would cause a ute to roll. But, if the vehicle wasin an unstable condition, the added momentum of the ROPS might aggravate thatinstability.

Mr Jenkins read the final report from Crashlab, which said: The internal ROPSfitted to the vehicle demonstrated limited potential for additional protection forfront-seat occupants in any of the tested crash configurations.

The ROPS did not eliminate roof crush over the front-seat occupants in thetested rollover crashes and offers no real reduction in any potential serious headand spinal injuries for these occupants in that type of crash.

Mr Jenkins pointed out that if y ou have a serious multi-roll accident, ROPS willmake a difference. But he said BHP was not seeing that type of crash in itsincident reports.

He also stressed that the results achieved at Crashlab could not be used as ageneric guide to all one-tonne utilities.

In light of the crash results, BHP changed its light-vehicle policy on May 18, 2012.The whole fleet must be changed over by January 2016.

From now on, all new BHP vehicles anywhere in the world must have a five-starNCAP rating.

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The new rules prohibit the installation of aftermarket equipment, except for minorexceptions such as where equipment is needed for visibility or communications.

Apart from the safety benefits, the new rules will save the company and itscontractors a lot of money and time.

Mr Jenkins said it once cost between $25,000 and $30,000 to fit out vehicles withROPS, bullbars and other aftermarket gear. And it took eight weeks.

Now BHPs light vehicles cost less than $15,000 to prepare for work in the pit,

with reflective stripes, two-way radio and an appropriate tray.

Mr Jenkins said the new policy fitted in with part of BHPs charter, which is tokeep things as simple as possible.

He said the previous light-vehicle standard for BHPs metallurgical coal divisionran for 45 pages. The standard now covers half a page with only six bullet points.

However, these new policies will not solve all the problems, he admitted.

Mr Jenkins said he still h ad a wish list he would like to be able to implement.

These included intelligent ignition keys so speeds could be limited in certain areasor acceleration curbed so the chances of getting into trouble are much less.

That would be perfect, he said. If I could just have an intelligent ignition keyfor the mine site and another for the open road just swap them at the gate Idont have to worry about someone speeding on the site because I know theycant.

Other features he would like to see include factory-fitted IVMS (in-vehiclemonitoring systems) and fatigue detection systems, the latter only appearing insome sedans but not utilities at this stage.

We spend a fortune on IVMS in light vehicles in Australian mine sites and haveterrible trouble getting them to work consistently, he said.

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