Safety award for Welsh firm

Scafftag has developed a computerised safety system

A company from south Wales has won a prestigious Scottish award for industrial safety.

The Lord Cullen Safety Award 2000 has been won by Barry firm Scafftag for their Safetrak system, which aims to bring industrial safety into the age of high tech.

The annual award by the Scottish Chamber of Safety is one of the best known in the British safety calendar, having been made since the 1940s for the best innovation in safety.

Lord Cullen, author of the landmark report into the Alpha Piper disaster in 1988 and more recently the Ladbroke Grove train crash in London, has given his name to the year 2000 competition to mark the Millennium.

It is a twist of fate that the birth of Safetrak was itself prompted by the Piper Alpha disaster.

Research and development

"The judges were most impressed with the innovative aspects of Safetrak," said David McGingal, of the Chamber.

"The award is made to encourage research and development."

"We are looking for people who have come up with ideas that will make a big contribution to safety, and put them into practice."

Scafftag's managing director,Dave Mitchell studied the Lord Cullen report into the Alpha Piperdisaster in minute detail.

He drew the conclusion that poor communication was one cause, and resolved to come up with a way of putting that right.

Twelve years on and Safetrak is now successfully completing its industrial trials with major companies in the UK.

The firm has perfected a system using radio frequency identification.

Information is stored in the management programme and can be transferred back and forth using a durable hand held computer and a range of tags fixed on the equipment being safety checked.

In the past, attempts to use this type of system failed because of poor readability in extreme conditions.

"I am delighted we have won this prestigious award, and it is thanks to the diligence and ingenuity of the team which has developed Safetrak from an idea into the real thing," said Mr Mitchell.