Whakatāne District Council staff have ramped up their health and safety checks on vehicles after two incidents in one month involving faulty trailers.

The council's senior health, safety and wellbeing adviser Sandy Barnes described the two incidents in a report tabled at a meeting on Wednesday

In the first incident, the trailer being towed locked up and, upon inspection, it was found that two U bolts for the rear axle had come loose. This caused the tyre to collide with the mud guard and pop.

On the second occasion, the trailer lost its right front wheel while driving on a road.

Councillor Wilson James said the incidents could have put other road users at risk and questioned what routine maintenance checks were done on council vehicles and trailers.

'Is there regular maintenance or do we just rely on Warrant of Fitness tests.”

Mrs Barnes said there had been some discussions with the teams involved.

'They do a pre-vehicle check each day before they start. We've had a bit of a modification around how that works but they've also now decided that waiting for a Warrant of Fitness is just too long, so the trailers will go in every three months for a full inspection, regardless of whether there have been any issues,” she said.

Between February and April, 29 health and safety events were reported. Three of the incidents involved staff members getting objects in their eyes, one of which resulted in a scratched eyeball and an investigation into these is also under way.

Future strategies for lone workers in the community are also being implemented.

Over the last reporting period, a staff member carrying out an inspection was accosted by a member of the public who tried to open the door of his vehicle.

The report said the council had determined the need for electronic monitoring for some roles such as those involving off-site inspections and working alone at night.

'This would allow real time reporting on staff whereabouts, provide alerting if there is an issue, man-down” functionality if a staff member is injured, and the ability to geo-fence specific locations where there have been previous issues to alert staff entering those areas.”

Councillor Nandor Tanczos said he was pleased to see the work being done on the staff risk.

'That's really good to see. We're seeing some tension toward council staff in different situations. The idea of being able to electronically monitor and also geo fencing locations where there are concerns, is really good.”