“The man had become trapped under heavy plant machinery..." UPDATED

Pat Barry, of Rockwell Automation. said at its most basic form, machinery safety is “how we keep people safe around machines.” That is so true in the aluminium industry. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents involving machinery in the past that resulted in injuries and fatalities. Here is a recent incident that emphasizes the continued need for machinery safety education.

The victim, a man in his 30s, died after the accident at an industrial park in United Kingdom one day during the week of July 12, 2015.

Emergency crews were called to the industrial park at about noon on day during the week of July 12, 2015. The man was released before fire crews arrived, but it is understood he died from his injuries at the scene.

The Health and Safety Executive is investigating the death. A spokeswoman confirmed the circumstances around his death were being investigated by the public body, but declined to comment further.

A spokesman for the company that is an aluminium waste and salt slag recycling company where the death is believed to have happened, said a police investigation was being carried out and that the company would not be commenting further.

Following the death people living nearby spoke of their sadness and said it was the first time such a tragedy had occurred at the site.

A spokesman for the local Ambulance Service, said: “We were called at just after noon to reports of a serious incident.”

One fire engine from the local Fire and Rescue Service attended. A spokesman for the fire service said: “The man had become trapped under heavy plant machinery but was released before arrival. It was a multi-agency response.” One resident, who lives near the industrial park but did not wish to be named, said: “I heard a lot of sirens earlier and wondered what was going on.

It is sad news and my thoughts are with the family.”

Local police said the local coroner for and the Health and Safety Executive have been informed. The death is not being treated as suspicious.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog offers our sincere condolences to the deceased worker’s family, friends and coworkers.

The news article provides little information regarding exactly what had occurred. Nevertheless the reader should take away from this post the importance of machinery safety. Either through operating or maintaining machinery safety has to always be considered. The APSB has posted incident after incident where workers were injured or killed operating or performing maintenance on machinery. The importance of safe isolation (lock out tag out) can never be underestimated. The Aluminium Times magazine had an article about safe isolation:

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A subsequent news media article has been published providing more details in this tragedy.

A 31 year worker from Spain was one of a team of seven Spaniards working for a sub-contracting firm at the aluminium waste recycling plant when he died one day during the week of July 12.

At a brief hearing during the week of July 19, the coroner for region, said he had been informed that the deceased was working about 15 feet off the ground. The inquest was adjourned.

The large metal hopper weighing several tons was being cut up and the sections were being lifted by crane, but one was cut through before the crane was in place, the inquest heard.

It fell on to the deceased, who was certified dead at the scene by a paramedic.

Local pathologist who carried out a post-mortem examination, said the cause of death was head trauma.

Adjourning the inquest to a date to be fixed, the coroner said that the matter was being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive.

The APSB previously was unaware that the deceased worker was with an outside contracting firm. Fatalities and injuries involving outside contractors have been posted in the past. The vast majority of outside contractors work safe in our plants. Unfortunately there are occasions where a momentary lapse in judgment, and wrong assumption, a false safety belief result in an incident.

The Aluminium Times had an article about outside contractors.

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