In brief

  • The problem: on 3 August 2026 a contract shotfirer was fatally struck by a reversing mobile processing unit while loading explosives on a drill pattern at an open cut coal mine near Singleton. Contractors on foot beside mobile plant remain one of the hardest interactions to control.
  • The requirement: the NSW Resources Regulator expects mine operators to plan and sequence work to keep plant and pedestrians apart, use spotters effectively, adopt proximity detection and collision avoidance where reasonably practicable, and verify through audits that controls work.
  • The gap: contractor controls rely heavily on induction, radio calls and spotters, and few sites have objective evidence of how often people on foot enter plant zones.
  • The outcome: Flagman restricted zone detection adds alerts and time-stamped evidence at the fixed locations where contractors and mobile plant meet every shift, while certified on-plant systems and the principal hazard management plan stay in charge.

A shutdown week at an open cut mine in the Hunter Valley. Three contracting companies are on site, the workshop is full, and a crew that started on Monday is walking between the go-line and the tyre bay with a light vehicle reversing nearby. Few of them have worked this site before.

Contractor safety at mine sites is rarely a paperwork problem. The harder question is whether the separation the plan describes is actually happening on the ground, and whether anyone would know if it was not.

The problem: contractors on foot beside mobile plant

On 28 August 2026 the NSW Resources Regulator released investigation information release IIR26-05. It describes a contract shotfirer who was on foot beside one mobile processing unit, helping load emulsion explosives into blastholes. A second unit in the adjacent row reached the end of the pattern and reversed about 50 metres while a spotter supervised. It struck the worker, who was fatally injured. The investigation is ongoing and the regulator has not published findings, so no conclusions about cause should be drawn here.

The regulator has said its investigation will examine planning and coordination of mobile plant, communication, risk assessments and procedures, whether proximity detection and collision avoidance technology was practicable, training and supervision, the operator’s contractor management plan, and the principal hazard management plans for blasting and for mobile plant and pedestrian interactions.

Technology adoption has been gradual. When the regulator assessed 29 surface coal mines and coal handling facilities in late 2021, 4 had implemented proximity awareness and collision avoidance technology, 6 were implementing it and 12 were planning to. That program focused on vehicle to vehicle interaction, which leaves people on foot as a gap many sites are still working through.

The national data shows why this matters. Safe Work Australia reports 10 mining worker fatalities in 2024, a rate of 3.4 per 100,000 workers, and at least one vehicle was involved in 66 per cent of all Australian worker fatalities that year.

The requirement: what NSW expects from operators and contractors

Under NSW mining work health and safety laws, the mine operator’s safety management system must cover every contractor working at the site. The regulator’s guide for contractors and other businesses at mines and petroleum sites says it must include:

  • Control measures for the risks arising from the contractor’s work.
  • Each contractor’s health and safety management plan and how it integrates with the safety management system.
  • A process for assessing contractor policies, procedures and competency requirements.
  • Arrangements for monitoring and evaluating the contractor’s compliance.

Duties are shared. Each business that engages or directs workers must, so far as reasonably practicable, consult, cooperate and coordinate with the others. In IIR26-05 the regulator also reminded operators to instruct and supervise workers so operators and pedestrians keep clear communication, to use spotters effectively when plant is reversing, to adopt proximity detection and collision avoidance systems where reasonably practicable, to plan and sequence work to separate plant and pedestrians, and to verify through audits that these controls are working.

Why existing controls leave a gap

  • Contractors are new to the site. An induction explains the layout, but it cannot give a new crew the instinct that comes from working an area for months.
  • Several businesses share one area. When the operator, a maintenance contractor and an explosives contractor all direct work nearby, communication depends on every radio call landing.
  • Spotters and procedures are administrative controls. They work when attention holds.
  • Monitoring is mostly periodic. Job observations and audits show what happened during the audit, not what happens on night shift or during a shutdown.

The solution: how Flagman restricted zone detection supports contractor controls

Flagman uses AI vision on site cameras to detect people, vehicles and personal protective equipment, and to raise alerts when a person enters a defined zone. Video is processed on an edge device at the site, with no cloud connection required. For contractor safety at mine sites, the practical uses are at fixed locations where the same interaction repeats every shift:

  • Restricted zone detection: virtual zones around workshop bays, tyre bays, wash bays, go-lines, park-up areas and fixed plant trigger local beacons, sirens or voice alerts when a person on foot enters.
  • Plant and pedestrian interaction points: fixed cameras at crossings and doorways detect people and vehicles approaching the same space, which is where a reversing light vehicle or service truck meets a contractor walking between tasks.
  • PPE detection at entry points: high visibility clothing and hard hat checks at the entrance to a work area support the induction rather than relying on it.
  • Machine response where controls allow: relay outputs and programmable logic controller integration over Modbus or PROFINET can trigger lights, gates or a slow or stop signal on fixed plant where the machine’s controls accept it.
  • Evidence for audits: every detection is logged with time-stamped video, so the monitoring and evaluation the regulator expects can draw on real events, not only scheduled observations.

Limitations: where Flagman does not fit

Be clear about the boundaries. Flagman is not a certified collision avoidance or proximity detection system for mobile plant such as haul trucks, mobile processing units or excavators, and it should not be offered as one. On an active drill pattern during explosives loading, the primary controls remain work planning and sequencing, exclusion zones, positive communication, spotters and on-plant systems assessed under the site’s mechanical engineering control plan. Flagman holds no hazardous area certification and must not be used in underground coal or other explosive atmospheres. It is not an isolation or lockout device.

Camera detection depends on line of sight, lighting, dust and glare, so every location needs assessment. Contractors and visitors are not covered by the employee records exemption in the Privacy Act, and camera use must follow NSW workplace surveillance requirements, so deploy with clear signage, induction content and workforce consultation. Facial recognition is not part of the default configuration.

Predictive maintenance: plant condition is part of the control

Contractor and pedestrian controls lean on equipment that must work every time: reversing alarms, cameras, beacons, lights, radios and brakes on mobile plant, and the interlocks on fixed plant. When those items degrade between services, a spotter or a procedure ends up carrying risk that an engineering control was meant to carry.

Predictive maintenance uses pre-start defects, maintenance backlog, equipment hours and failure history to find components that are likely to fail before they do. Sharktech Global builds Business Intelligence dashboards that bring maintenance, downtime and safety data together, including Flagman events, so a site can see whether zone breaches cluster around plant with open defects or around areas where lighting or warning devices are out of service.

A practical plan for NSW mine operators

  1. List every area where contractors on foot and mobile plant share space, starting with workshops, go-lines and shutdown work areas.
  2. Check that each contractor’s health and safety management plan addresses those areas, and that the operator has confirmed it in writing before work starts.
  3. Define exclusion zones and walkways, then add fixed-camera restricted zone detection at the highest-risk locations.
  4. Review zone breaches and near misses weekly with each contractor’s supervisor.
  5. Feed the findings into the principal hazard management plan review and the next audit.

Flagman in Australia: local delivery by Sharktech Global

Sharktech Global, based in Liverpool, New South Wales, is the exclusive Australian and New Zealand delivery partner for Perleybrook Labs, the developer of Flagman. Sharktech assesses sites, installs and integrates Flagman with existing cameras and plant controls, and provides local business-hours support. Details of its mining safety, managed IT and data services are on the Sharktech website.

The outcome you can measure

  • Alerts at the moment a person on foot enters a plant zone.
  • Zone breach and near miss counts by area, shift and contractor crew.
  • Time-stamped video that supports audits and the review of contractor arrangements.

Key takeaways

  • The Singleton fatality investigation names contractor management and plant and pedestrian interaction as areas of focus.
  • NSW operators must integrate contractor plans into their safety management system and monitor compliance.
  • Flagman restricted zone detection adds alerts and evidence at fixed interaction points, not on the drill pattern.

For related reading, see Haul Trucks and Light Vehicles Still Collide at NSW Mines and Near Misses Go Unreported: How Flagman Turns Close Calls into Safety Data.

Next step

Request a Flagman safety assessment or call Sharktech Global on 0468 017 373.

Sources: NSW Resources Regulator, Investigation information release IIR26-05 (28 August 2026); NSW Resources Regulator, Guide: Contractors and other businesses at mines and petroleum sites (August 2024); NSW Resources Regulator, Compliance priorities report: proximity awareness and collision avoidance (2022); Safe Work Australia, Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025. This article is general information, not legal advice.