There was an accident involving two haul trucks at an iron ore mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara last week when one ran into the back of the other overnight. While nothing has been stated about the exact causes, falling asleep at the wheel may have been a cause. Whether or not it was, there is no doubt this is a problem at many mines and that sleep warning systems are a must. The developers/inventors of two such devices have been nominated for the safety category, sponsored by Redpath, of the International Mining Technology Hall of Fame, as noted in the second part of the nominations article that appears in the December issue of the magazine. Part 1 is in November.

The two are Optalert founder and Chief Scientist Dr Murray Johns and SmartCap inventor Dr Daniel Bongers. Incidents involving impact between mine vehicles (heavy or light) can have disastrous consequences. While they are not all caused by drowsiness, introducing a new controls to monitor fatigue must be important to any mine that needs such systems.