Who is responsible for the Evacuation Procedure at a show?
The organising committee should liaise with the facility owner to ensure there is a clear understanding of the current evacuation procedure. If you are on the organising committee it is your responsibility to get the people out of the facility safely.
We recommend you talk with the owners to assess where the evacuation gathering points are for the facility you are using.
Then you need to make sure you have briefed your committee and volunteers on who is responsible for what in the case of an emergency evacuation. This might include:
- Making sure everyone knows who is in charge.
- Assigning people to areas.
- Ensuring everyone knows where to congregate.
- Understanding who can and cannot speak to the media.
What wording would you recommend having in relation to use of powered sites? Should it be in the schedule or advise on a one on one basis?
It should be in the schedule and it should be a conversation you have with the facility owner as well.
You need to be satisfied that the facility is providing the powered sites to an adequate safety level.
And then you need to put the following in your show conditions. And police it!
“All electrical cords plugged into the (facility) power boxes are required to be certified and have a visible tag showing. Cords will be checked and any that do not show certification tags will be removed.
There is to be no tethering cords between trucks or other vehicles and the organising committee will not accept any unsafe use of these electrical sites.”
What wording do you recommend for the use of motorcycles?
- Quad Bikes/and or any motorised Bikes o All riders must wear a helmet at all times. This is inclusive of pillion passengers.
- No more than one pillion passenger is allowed per bike. o Speed is restricted to no more than 10kms per hour.
- All drivers of ANY bike must hold the appropriate licenses/endorsements to operate the vehicle.
- Any driver seen to behave contrary to this policy, to operate while under the influence of alcohol, allow pillions to ride in a dangerous manner or generally operate in an unsafe manner will mean their bike will be confiscated for the duration of the event and the offending driver removed from the event.
Do we have to sight a health and safety plan for all contractors – eg anyone making money from the show like Photographers, Food Providers & outside secretaries?
As the organising committee you should ensure that all contractors have their own health and safety plan to ensure compliance with their own permits and trade licenses etc. If possible you should get a copy of these as well for your files.
It is a good idea to get them to sign an agreement that shows they have been inducted onto the site and they have agreed they are working under their own health and safety plan. A contractor vetting form is available on the website. See the link below and select “Contractor vetting Template”.
/esnz/resources/health-safety/resourcestemplates-for-areagroupsocs/
If the above is yes, how do we deal with contractors that come on to the grounds and conduct business without our knowledge? Or if they come to our attention like a farrier or someone doing equisssage?
You can only do as much as is reasonably practical and as long as you can show that you tried then that is a good start. It would be a good idea to have a section in your show conditions and a sign on the gate or at the secretaries window.
- Show conditions should state that all people conducting business on the site must report to the office on arrival and let the office know they are there and what they are doing.
- They should sign the contractors vetting form or a waiver form stating they are working under their own health and safety and they accept there are risks in what they are doing.
- A sign on the gate or at the office should remind anyone working to report to the office.
Is there any firm rule on the use of rope/tape for fencing of arenas other areas like parking and if so what are the alternatives?
It is preferred that plastic tape or plastic chain is used rather than electric fence tape. But there is no hard and fast rule.
How do we report incidents and what happens to those reports?
There is an online incident reporting system created on the ESNZ website. This includes an online form and forms you can download and fill in by hand.
/esnz/resources/health-safety/
Select online form for submitting straight to us. Select manual form for the printable version.
We would like organising committees and officials to feel they can report any incident at a show or event on these forms and they can be recorded with us.
We suggest organising committees print the printable version of the sheets and distribute them to officials, judges boxes and stewards as well as having some on the secretaries offices for anyone else to fill in if they need one.
At the end of the show, the secretary or health and safety officer should upload the information into the online form and submit it to ESNZ. In the event this cannot be done, they could send the forms to the ESNZ office and we can assess them from there.
The online forms are uploaded into a spreadsheet which is then sent to discipline boards for their input and to the ESNZ board as part of its commitment to Health and Safety. The ESNZ board wants to see the reports logged in so it can analyse any trends, issues or potential rule changes to assist in safety of riders, spectators, officials and horses.
Who is responsible for lodging incidents with OSH?
Please see the crisis communications template on the website – this gives you a suggested crisis procedure complete with who is responsible for contacting Worksafe NZ and other entities.
However to assist you the suggested procedure is as below.
- Crisis Team Manager informs OC chair and ESNZ CEO or Chair or nominated representative in the absence of the CEO.
- ESNZ CEO will inform the insurance company of the details of the incident.
- ESNZ CEO will handle press inquiry from media.
- The President of the Ground Jury to work with the event ad hoc committee (see FEI Annex IX) within 24 hours to investigate the incident.
- The relevant sport manager must be notified as soon as possible they will then adivse their relevant board.
- The ESNZ CEO will notify the FEI of any death or serious accident.
- The ESNZ CEO, the event TD, the CTM and the organising committee chair will meet to discuss the incident and what needs to be done next.
- The ESNZ CEO will determine whether WorkSafe NZ needs to be advised.
Who is responsible if someone falls through the cracks and rides unregistered?
Again, as long as event secretaries have done all that is practically possible then sometimes people will fall through the cracks.
Sport managers should be working with event secretaries to ensure they are supported to check registration validity. Event secretaries should be checking the validity of rider registration and calling the office for any advice or assistance prior to their show.
It is also important to note that office holders in area groups that are organising events need to be full financial members and this certainly helps with any insurance issues should something go wrong.
What happens if someone just comes down to the show to school but is not entered? Or grooms that are not members?
If they are not entered and are not registered as being on site, you can only do your best in terms of keeping them safe. Again it is about practicality and if you are concerned about this then you should have “casual drop ins” as a risk on your hazard register and then work out if it is something you can control or not.
No easy answer I am afraid.
What about people that help pick up rails (often parents friends watching) – will they all have to be briefed or told not to help if they do?
Unfortunately it will become more of an issue. At major shows we recommend ring crews wear fluoro jackets so they can be seen and that they are briefed before the event begins. They should also be able to feed any info back to the organising committee about issues or suggestions for better use of ring crews.
People standing on the side of the ring will always want to help and whilst this is probably not ideal. It is part of the sport’s culture, we don’t think it’s practical to stop people from doing this but if you have stewards at the gate then they should try and make sure no one goes in the ring when the rider is still completing their class.
Are there going to be H&S standards around equipment? I.e. trailers have to be registered and warranted, certain jump stands banned – every show has to have a curtain?
Every equestrian show organising committee should have screens in the event of any serious equine incident requiring veterinary assistance. Someone should be in charge of them, the chief stewards and judges should know where they are and how to erect them.
It is up to the organising committee to ensure the people using equipment are not at risk, so if they are using trailers and quad bikes, the OC will need to be certain the equipment is safe and that all operators understand their obligations to keep others safe as well.
Is there a recommended/maximum weight for jumping poles?
Not that we are aware of.
There is nothing about the arena surfaces, creating a safe environment with a fenced arena and a gate, or specific mention of the condition of the jumping equipment, the practice arenas etc. Do these get covered anywhere else?
Organising committees have great people who often have a very clear understanding of how to set up an arena safely and what to do. Certainly ESNZ trained officials have experience in knowing what is required for a safe arena and use of equipment in the jumping ring.
It really comes down to common sense. You know what equipment is needed, you know that to use unsafe equipment would not be a good idea and you know that arenas need an entry and exit point. How you choose to execute that in your circumstances needs to be up to you to decide in the safest and most practical way.
The information in the Health and Safety template is very specific. Do we have the right to adjust/change it? And if we did and an incident happened around something that was taken out/changed would we be liable as that is what the ESNZ as the PCBU provided?
The template is a guideline and as is clearly stated you should use the bits that apply to you and delete the bits that don’t. As long as you have made every best effort to keep people safe then that is all we can ask.
If a show pays an honorarium does that change its status to a PCBU under the Act?
Volunteers can be reimbursed for their expenses when performing the work as a volunteer and they can be paid a koha or honoraria without changing the status of the organising committee.
My question hasn't been answered here, what now?
If anyone has any further questions they would like added to this FAQ please send them to [email protected]