"hit on the head by a crowbar he used to unlock the machine.."

The jamming or sticking of machinery in our industry is commonplace. For a myriad of reasons some machinery may stop unexpectedly. It is at this time the operator should fall back upon their training to properly unjam the machine. Here is a recent incident highlighting the potential hazard of using a pry bar or crow bar to unjam a machine.

A 48-year-old worker in an aluminum factory in (a town in Southern Europe) is being treated in the Intensive Care Unit of the (local) University Hospital after head surgery, as he was seriously injured on Saturday morning, trying to unblock a machine that had "stuck" during his work.

According to information from the staff of the (local town) Labor Center and the Metal Union, the 48-year-old man was hit on the head by a crowbar he used to unlock the machine.

Straight to the surgery

He was initially transferred to the General Hospital, but the CT scan showed that he had to be operated on by a neurosurgeon, so he was transferred to the General Hospital, where he was operated on and is currently hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit.

The administration of the (local labor union) in a first comment points out that "we are walking between multiple Tempis" and that "the workers and the people must take the situation into their own hands and demand security measures now".

We pray that the injured worker recovers fully from their injuries. We have sadly reported on similar incidents. Many are fatal. Workplaces have to safe operating procedures on the unjamming of machinery.

We are ashamed to say that this topic of “unjamming machinery” is not a point or topic that we commonly bring up. But, sadly as we think back upon the last 13 years of editing this blog we have posted nearly a dozen incidents. All too often the incidents are fatal because the worker is not wearing head protection and the pry bar, large wrench, etc. releases and hits the worker in the head. We will focus on discussing this point in the future when we visit workplaces.

Please comment.