Aerial lifts are a common sight in every type of plant in the aluminium industry. Over the past year there have been several incidents involving aerial lifts resulting in injuries and fatalities. Here is a story emphasizing the continued need for aerial lift safety training.
A man was severely injured in an accident during the week of March 10, 2013 in the Eastern United States at a forging company. The incident occurred when oxygen was released from a gas line and knocked the worker from a platform where the worker was working on, police said.
The local police chief reported that the victim was helicoptered from the scene to a nearby hospital for treatment of his injuries.
According to the police chief, the victim was performing maintenance on an oxygen line in a welding section. Using a scissor lift elevated about 12-15 feet in the air when, at about 1:30 P.M when oxygen was released from the line, the pressure from which knocked the victim off the lift.
A second employee was treated at the scene as a result of soot the release of gas dispersed throughout the area, the police chief said. The chief added that there was no evidence of a fire or "ignition source" following the incident.
The unexpected or accidental release of stored energy can be hazardous to workers. Hazardous energy sources can include but are not limit to electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, chemical, thermal, and pneumatic.This incident involved the unexpected release of high pressure oxygen. It is unknown if the worker was wearing the proper ppe. Nor is it known if the locker was wearing a safety harness. It is our wish that the injured worker recover fully.
The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has an informative training program on lock-out tagout training. It can be viewed here. OSHA has an aerial lift fact sheet that can be viewed here.
Please comment.
7 comments:
Interesting, how do you "lock out" a pressurized gas line.
Great question. A "Double block and bleed" may have prevented this incident from occurring. By the closure of the pipe by closing and locking or tagging two in-line valves and by opening and locking or tagging a drain or vent valve in the line between the two closed valves. That would have ensured the release of pressure in the pipe.
There were a couple of issues regarding the article that I feel should be addressed. The article indicates that the equipment in use was a scissor lift, not an aerial lift as is referenced at the bottom of the article. Most regulatory agencies do not require fall protection PPE use by workers on scissor lift because the guardrails on the lift are considered fall fall protection. Several scissor lift manufacturers now offer scissor lifts with anchor points so that harnesses and lanyards can be used but to my knowledgfe it is not mandated.
The primary concern in this case appears to be the failure to depressurize and lockoutout the oxygen line. As was pointed out all sources of hazardous energy have to be considered.
In normal safety hints of lifts we hardly find warnings relating to pipe opening releasing gas being poison and/or subject to pressure waves. One improvement could be to have a warning sign neighbouring pressure openings or valves releasing gas - continuously or suddenly.Further, such locations could be identified as to mandatorily have a work permit and in this way having prepared, implemented and trained a proper safety instruction. Another general rule to improve safety could be that maintenance employees discuss at the beginning of every shift the work and the involved safety risks, valid procedures,needed safety gears, tools, and the like. This would typically improve not just safety but also efficiency.
Just about every place I have worked,the requirement for fall protection is anything over 4 ft. requires a safety harness,thus if one was worn the injuries would not have been so severe. I hope the person who fell is ok,and uses better judgement next time.
This all points to how did they devised a safe system of work. An effective Permit to Work system would / should have identified the hazards and subsequent controls, along with the method statement and risk assessment. Elevate work and physical isolation support certificates to the PTW would have played a key role.
Its really sad to see people still injuring themselves from access platform operation even though there have been great improvements in safety facilities and features.
Really wish plant supervisors will take more care with safety when using these machines, especially scissor lifts and cherry pickers etc.
Cheers
Carl
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