Incident alert
LOCATION:
CONCRETE PRODUCTS
ACTIVITY:
MAINTENANCE & HOUSEKEEPING
TITLE
BPCF 2005 Alert: Conveyor Crush Injury
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
United Kingdom
ACCIDENT / INCIDENT DETAILS
THERE FOLLOWS A SERIES OF 9 OLDER SAFETY ALERTS RECEIVED FROM THE BPCF
In the process of attempting to clear a lump of mortar from inside the conveyor belt situated underneath the propulsion unit, an operator reached inside an access point 10cm square, immediately adjacent to the pulley wheel.
The production line had been stopped, however operator 2 (Tile Machine Operator) had not seen op 1 reaching inside the belt, and so he switched the tile machine into manual. This started the conveyor without warning, drawing ops 1 hand and arm into the pulley causing a crushing injury. As soon as op 1shouted, op 2 stopped the conveyor and op1 pulled his arm free.
The accident was caused primarily by inadequate guarding allowing access to the conveyor. In addition there was a communication failure between the two operators involved and finally the machine protocol when switching the conveyor into manual should be set to give a warning siren followed by a delay before the line restarts.
The access point - which had been previously overlooked in all earlier risk assessments was immediately covered by installing a fixed guard and the "Manual" start-up protocol is now to be revised after input from the national process team.
ACCIDENT / INCIDENT IMAGES
LEARNING POINTS / ACTIONS TAKEN
1. External access to tail-end pulley stopped by guard.
2. Manual start-up of conveyer altered to include warning siren followed by delay before belts move.
3. All fixed guard removal to be protected by coded magnetic switches.
4. All cleaning work to be secondary protected by lock out hasps.
5. Full operator retraining programme carried out.
National
1. All LTAs must be followed up by a post accident risk assessment to be
sent to the national safety manager.
2. The national electrical design team will approve all safety interlocks and
Safe Systems of Work drawn up to create safe conditions.
3. All plant managers and Divisional staff to receive details of this incident.
LEARNING POINTS / ACTIONS IMAGES
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