Peter Mickelburough
July 14, 2013
Herald Sun
AS many as one in four petrol stations fail to meet crucial safety standards and pose major risks to thousands of unsuspecting Victorians.
Missing firefighting equipment, lack of safety barriers, missing or inoperable safety gear, no spill containments, untrained staff, and non-existent or out-dated emergency response plans are among safety problems uncovered in a secret audit by WorkSafe inspectors.
One service station was issued with 12 safety notices for breaches that included no fire extinguishers at bowsers, no safety switches on electrical gear, no regular checks of safety equipment, and no up-to-date approvals from the Metropolitan Fire Brigade.
Petrol stations are the most potentially dangerous place regularly visited by most Victorians and the Herald Sun has been told inspectors were shocked by the extent and breadth of key safety failures their checks uncovered.
After initially offering to detail its findings to the Herald Sun, WorkSafe then refused to co-operate for fear of causing panic among motorists and residents using or living near unsafe petrol stations.
The authority eventually confirmed the audit’s shock findings, with 800 safety notices issued during visits to 334 service stations in the past year.
WorkSafe is so concerned it is increasing visits to the state’s 1700 service stations to ensure compliance, with a further 250 inspections expected in the coming year.
At one site, the cabinet containing the service station’s emergency safety plans had not been checked for so long that ants had built a nest in it. Safety information at another service station had been destroyed by weevils and a third station’s plans had been stored so poorly they had rotted away.
The audit was ordered after a number of incidents, including a petrol tanker exploding at a Rowville petrol station. The tanker, which was carrying more than 20,000 litres of fuel, burst into flames at a Caltex service station during an electrical storm in December 2011.
Other recent incidents saw:
A CAR drive off, ripping the nozzle off a diesel hose which allowed fuel to spread across a service station in the eastern suburbs.
The operator turned off the bowser but when police arrived, he was ordered to shut down all bowsers. Due to a lack of knowledge of the shut-off system, he accidentally restarted the broken bowser, causing a larger spill.
TWO men sat in their car smoking as an attendant began filling their barbecue bottle nearby with gas from a 400 litre LPG tank. The attendant went back to his console to make a phone call.
A WorkSafe inspector filling up his car noticed the gas bottle venting highly flammable vapour.
When he asked the attendant to hit the emergency stop button, the attendant refused, saying it wasn’t his problem and continued to talk on the phone. The inspector turned off the gas.
A DRIVER overstretched a hose as he was trying to fill his car late one evening.
It separated from the bowser, spraying petrol over his car and the forecourt. Panicking, he ran into the office screaming for the pump to be turned off.
Fearing she was about to be attacked by a violent assailant, the young female worker hid under the counter and refused to respond.
“WorkSafe will work with all service station owners to make sure they comply with the regulations, WorkSafe spokesman Shane Gillard said. “But we will have no hesitation in taking the appropriate action to ensure the site is safe for employees and the general public.”
More than a third of the safety notices issued related to poor emergency response equipment and procedures, about a quarter related to poor maintenance of equipment such as air compressors and, at a quarter of sites, the owner was not meeting their reporting obligations about quantities of petrol.
“WorkSafe continues to work constructively with the retail fuel industry to discuss ways to continue improving service station safety. Victorian petrol stations have a good safety record and we want to help them keep it that way,” Mr Gillard said.
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