"employee was fatally injured while completing routine maintenance...."

Maintenance personnel are involved on a daily basis with a range of hazards including but not limited to confined space, lock out tag out, falls, etc. Here is a recent story where a maintenance worker was killed while performing a "routine" procedure.

An alumina company confirmed that the employee was fatally injured while completing routine maintenance work during the week February 23, 2014 in Australia.

Police, ambulance and the site emergency response team attended to the incident.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the employee’s family and colleagues at this time,” company general manager said.

“Our immediate priority is to provide any assistance needed to support the employee’s family and colleagues following this tragic incident.” company general manager said all operations at the mine would be paused.

"The operation has also ceased all hazardous work on site as well as materials handling, all planned maintenance and all non-essential refinery activity for at least the next 24 hours,” he said.

The alumina company has launched an investigation into the incident and said it was working closely with the relevant authorities.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog offers our sincere condolences to the worker's family, friends, and coworkers. It is recommended that onsite counseling be available for the victim's coworkers.

It is not the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog intention to place blame on either company nor worker(s), but the hope that awareness of these accidents brings education and prevention of recurrence. The APSB acknowledges that the investigation process for this incident is still occurring. It is our hope that once completed the findings be released to the industry. There has also been a growing number of companies in 2013 that refused to share information after an injury or a fatality investigation. This is dangerous new trend in our field. There are a myriad of reasons why some companies have decided not to share information, from protecting a company's public image to a fear,  or that they will worsen the inevitable lawsuit that will be filed on behalf of the injured or deceased worker. This self imposed isolation not only leads to an overall decline in the companies safety but puts at risk the entire industry. It is our hope that this alumina company will break this trend.

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