"died after being pulled into a moving fan ......"

On our plant visits we speak about the importance of workers following their training, never skips steps, and too never make assumptions. Because a failure of one those can easily lead to an incident. Sadly, here is a recent incident where a worker failed to follow his training, skipped steps, and made an assumption. He died as a result.

The 61-year-old male who was killed in an industrial accident one day during the week of October 7, 2018 died after being pulled into a moving fan at a foundry in the Midwest USA, according to the local County Medical Examiner's report.

The report identified the man as (omitted man).

The deceased worker was working on the rooftop of the foundry in a fan shack.  He was found in a small steel shack, which controlled ventilation for the building. 

A person on the scene told investigators the worker was supposed to have "tagged out" after finishing his task, but didn't and was "swallowed up" by the fan, according to the ME report.

Lockout-tagout is a Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulation and safety procedure to keep employees safe and make sure machines are properly turned off so no one can put it back in service while it is being worked on.

Another worker heard some commotion and found the worker.  He shut down the unit and called 911 at 3:10 p.m. 

The medical cause of his death is still under investigation.

The report doesn't state how long the deceased worked at the foundry.

The report did not identify any negligence, but OSHA is still investigating.

We offer our sincere condolences to the deceased worker’s family, friends, and coworkers.

It is unknown if the worker had performed this procedure beforehand. Regardless, the news media article states that the worker failed to follow lock out tag out. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents where a failure to properly follow lock out tag out or safe isolation procedures resulted in workers being injured or killed. The Aluminium Times magazine had an article about this topic. It can be downloaded here:

So what should the reader do with this post? It would be our sincere hope that you will print it out and discuss it with your maintenance workers. Explain to the workers what can go horribly wrong if they to follow their training, skip steps, and/or make assumptions.

Please comment.