The latest Global Safety Alert relates to a contract haulier who died in an incident overseas, when his flatbed truck came off the road and overturned.

As you will see in the Alert, the driver had a messaging app open on his mobile phone at the time of the incident, and the subsequent investigation identified that he had previously recorded videos while driving and uploaded them to social media.  The investigation also confirmed that the contract haulage company had failed to advise that the driver had tested positive for drugs on two previous occasions during the last year. During his journey the driver apparently stopped at three different locations which are renowned for selling drugs, although there is no proof that any were purchased.

Please discuss the Alert with your team including relevant contractors, highlighting the following:

• The importance of strong relationships with our contract company partners, with robust verification through AVETTA and MP Connect of the contract company health and safety management systems and individual competencies.
• The requirements of the Health and Safety Standards for the Safe Use of Mobile Phones, including avoiding mobile phone use while driving unless absolutely necessary, the ban on hand held phones unless parked up with the engine off, the prohibition on phone use while driving on Cemex and customer sites, and the ban on texting, emailing and any other hands-on use of a mobile device.
• The Drug and Alcohol Abuse Policy, including zero tolerance of any drugs that could adversely affect work performance and/or health and safety.  It may be appropriate to reiterate the testing policy, which for employees includes random testing of new starters, post incident testing and “with cause testing”. Contractors are required to have alcohol and drug abuse policies equal to, or more stringent than the Cemex Policy, with anyone failing a test or refusing to take a test being permanently excluded.

The Alert should also be displayed on all workplace notice boards. You can find the Alert on the UK News download page: here

Cemex Global Protocols require all Fatal Alerts to be communicated and Managers to capture the signature of employees and contractors to confirm they have received and understood the information and the control measures they need to adopt.  In addition, operations are invited to observe a one-minute silence in memory of the deceased at the time of discussing a Fatal Incident Safety Alert.