"3 bales, each weighing at least 571 kilograms...one dead"

 

As we view the various posts on LinkedIn we comment if we see a safety issue in the photo or video. Our goal is not to insult nor demean the worker(s) nor the company in the post. The most common observation we comment on is the safety issue involved with stacking material too tall. The material can be sows, billet, scrap, anodes, etc. Material that is stack too tall has the potential to fall if the material is awkward in shape, bumped by moving equipment, etc. Here is a recent incident that highlights the hazard with stacking material too tall.

The Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) has released the conclusions of its investigation into the work accident that claimed the life of a contractor for a manufacturer in January 2021 in Canada.

On the day of the accident, the contractor was in a (location) establishment and was to carry out work on site.

Circumstances

At the end of his workday, he headed with a colleague to the exit of the building. As he walked towards the exit, 3 bales of aluminum, each weighing at least 571 kilograms, fell from a pile of 6 bales in height towards the victim.

The worker was crushed under one of them. Help was called to the scene, and the injured contractor was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Causes

The investigation enabled the (provincial government safety department) to select three causes to explain the accident. First, a worker was crushed by a bale of aluminum weighing at least 571 kilograms and fell more than 2.3 metres high.

Second, the method of storing the aluminum bales exposed workers to the risk of falling from the batteries.

Also, the management of the health and safety of this storage, as well as traffic, was deficient in the non-ferrous building. This is due to the lack of effective information facilities and traffic lane layout, in addition to a lack of supervision.

Concrete actions

Following the accident, the (the provincial government safety department) prohibited the company from stacking aluminum bales at this establishment and prohibited all traffic in the area where the bales fell.

In addition, the (the provincial government safety department)  required the development of a safe work procedure for stacking bales, a battery inspection process and training workers on the new measures in place.

The employer complied with these requirements.

To prevent accidents related to the stability of material piles, solutions exist, including ensuring that the material piles are stored at a sufficient height so that their stability is not compromised.

It is also recommended that piles of materials be stored in a stable configuration using a wide pile base and a low centre of gravity, by storing the heaviest material at the bottom of the piles, in interspersed storage or in a pyramid.

On the other hand, these piles of stored materials should be inspected regularly and rearranged as necessary.

Finally, it is important to demarcate traffic lanes in a way that will allow workers to travel safely.

We offer our sincere condolences to the deceased worker’s family, friends, and coworkers. No doubt this practice of stacking scrap bales six tall was a common practice. The company had a false safety belief on this procedure. A false safety belief occurs when a task or procedure is deemed safe because no incident in the past has occurred. All too often it is only after an incident occurs that the task or procedure was found to always be unsafe. It was only out of shear luck that an incident did not occur before.

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