"It is believed that the man was pinched in the head...."

On our travels around the industry we purposely request to speak to maintenance departments. Why? Because no other department is exposed to more hazards than maintenance. Sadly, here is a recent incident that we will use (not mentioning company name nor location) to make our industry safer.

 

At around 4:30 pm on (one day during the second week of April 2023) at (unnamed auto plant) in (a city in East Asia), a 44-year-old temporary employee of the same factory, died after being caught in a machine that presses aluminum. The (local) North Police Station is investigating the details.

 

According to the police station, another employee called (emergency management services) at around 4:40 p.m., claiming that his body was caught in a machine. It is believed that the man was pinched in the head while several people were performing maintenance work on the machine.

We offer our sincere condolences to the deceased worker’s family, friends and coworkers. We do note that the deceased was listed as “temporary”. We discount that this had anything to do with the incident because this car company in particular has a well defined and through safety program. It is common throughout industry in general to bring in outside contractors to assist with maintenance shutdowns.

Next up, on our safety talks with maintenance personnel we always propose a “last ditch safety device” (ldsd). This came about after reporting on countless  The LDSD would be a device, we recommend a customized section of crane rail. That can be inserted into a machine or device that would prevent it from closing. Please note LDSD is not a replacement for lock out tag out or safe isolation. But, the hope is that if the machinery/device moves the LDSD would prevent the worker(s) maintaining it would not be injured or killed. We were pleased when we offered this idea to an extrusion plant. The maintenance manager at the plant interrupted our presentation and said "....we have thought about that idea and will now do it." 

Please note that if your workplace(s) decides to use LDSD devices. It will require more supervision to ensure that workers do not skip steps and fail to properly log out tag out (safe isolation). As we have told countless plants is that the LDSD is not an alternative to current safety practices.

Please comment.