"troubleshooting a machine when it engaged and struck him..."

Safe isolation or lockout tagout hazards are present in many areas of our plants. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incident after incident where an assumption or skipped step, or a bad habit has resulted in a worker not following their training and incident occurred. Here is a recent story:

A maintenance worker at an aluminium foundry in the Midwest United States died after an accident on the job one day during the week of February 14, 2016, and now the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s local office is investigating.

Initial reports indicate the worker was troubleshooting a machine when it engaged and struck him causing fatal injuries. OSHA will investigate to determine if the machine was locked out to prevent operation at the time of the injury.

“We offer our condolences to the family on this tragic, preventable death,” said the local OSHA’s Area Director, in a news release. “Each year hundreds of workers are injured by machinery because safety procedures are not implemented.”

OSHA said it will conduct a thorough investigation, gathering evidence, interviewing employees, and reviewing relevant company records and documents. OSHA may issue citations and penalties if the agency finds violations of OSHA standards or law.

Since 2007, OSHA has conducted five inspections at the aluminium foundry facility and five at its other facility, where it operates a foundry. Last month, the company was cited for one serious violation after a worker suffered an amputation injury at the foundry late in 2015.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog offers our sincere condolences to worker’s family, friends, and coworkers on their loss. We pray that overtime that their pain will ease and they will remember their loved one for how he lived and not how he died. It is our sincere hope that incidents such as this never be repeated. Unfortunately, this incident is similar to numerous safe isolation incidents recently.

The APSB editors travel quite a bit throughout our industry. On average we visit somewhere between 60-70 plants a year. We unfortunately turn down many more invitations to visit plants. For the plants we do visit we always ask to speak to the maintenance workers about safety. Why, because it seems that maintenance department personnel are involved in incidents more than any other job classification in a plant. There are a myriad of reasons why that is, their mobility throughout the plant, the numerous different hazards they interact with on a daily basis, etc. Regardless, our discussion with maintenance department personnel revolve around the topic of skipping steps and making assumptions. Safe isolation or lockout tagout training is always reviewed. It is our recommendation that custom equipment be designed (with the manufacturers input) that would prevent an incident such as this occurring. The custom equipment can be as simple as a steel channel or thick walled pipe that can be used as a last safety mechanism to ensure that the lockout program was successfully installed during a job function. From dross presses to extrusion presses a physical device should be used to prevent the accidentally release of stored energy. We acknowledge that many will argue that if a worker follows every step correctly the hazard has been controlled. We would counter that there are too many incidents that occur that could have been prevented if a custom device was installed.

In conclusion, please talk about this incident with your maintenance department and explain the importance of never skipping steps. Never make assumptions, and always double or even triple check that all stored energy has been isolated.

The Aluminium Times magazine had an article about this topic.

Lastly please note that late last year that this aluminium company had another incident which involved an amputation. We pray that the injured worker was able to have their appendage reattached. We also pray that the injured worker will receive the necessary medical and metal heath support needed. 

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