SafetyWorks Group in conjunction with sponsors Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) and Port of Newcastle, will host a complimentary screening of the movie Deepwater Horizon as an event to mark National Safe Work Month 2017. The screening will be held at Event Cinemas Kotara on Wednesday 18 October, from 1.30pm until 4.30pm.
Sharing safety knowledge and experience benefits everyone is this year’s theme for National Safe Work Month, a national campaign initiative of SafeWork Australia held each year in October.
Safe Work Australia Chair, Diane Smith-Gander is encouraging Hunter businesses to hold a safety initiative in their workplace.
“This October, commit to improving health and safety in your workplace,” said Diane.
“Run a safety initiative in your workplace.”
SafetyWorks wanted to make it possible for the broader community in the Hunter Region to recognise the event. So they came up with the idea of showing the movie Deepwater Horizon as a joint safety initiative.
Director of SafetyWorks, Kerry Walker said the movie had a significant impact on her.
“I know the impact this movie had on me when I first watched it earier this year. The action is brilliant and realistic. It was also scarily like watching Piper Alpha all over again,” Kerry said. Piper Alpha was a major oil and gas explosion that killed 167 people and completely destroyed an oil rig in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland in 1988.
Deepwater Horizon is a Hollywood dramatisation of the disaster on April 20, 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, igniting a massive fireball that killed eleven crew members and created the worst oil spill in American history.
SafetyWorks appreciates the support of ARTC and Port of Newcastle, who enthusiastically agreed to provide sponsorship for the event to allow as many people to attend as possible.
The event will include a short networking session, screening of the movie and a brief panel discussion following to summarise how the lessons of what went wrong at Deepwater can be applied to our own workplaces.
“We want to provide an opportunity for anyone to attend,” Kerry said.
“Leaders can bring their teams, workgroups can attend, WHS committees can come along as a team building day, safety professionals or individuals can attend on their own.”
IMAGE | Piper Alpha.
