ABSTRACT
Recent changes in the Mine Health and Safety Act in South Africa require employers at any mine to take reasonably practicable measures to ensure that persons are prevented from being injured due to collisions between Trackless Mobile Machines (TMMs) and between TMMs and pedestrians. This has resulted in numerous suppliers of Collision Management Systems (CMS) entering the market, often with products that are not sufficiently tested or developed to address the significant challenges associated with the practical implementation of such systems. As a result, a test methodology was developed in consultation with the South African mining industry based on machine stopping performance. This paper presents the test methodology, describing the specific test configurations, testing equipment, success criteria and sample test results. To date, eighteen lab-scale tests have been conducted on systems intended for implementation in all sectors of the mining industry in South Africa. Finally, some key findings and recommendations are made. These findings are based on some common challenges encountered by CMS suppliers during the evaluation tests and lessons learnt by the test laboratory during the development of the evaluation procedure.
