Accident Report: Fatality Reference
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fab09m08.pdf
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METAL/NONMETAL MINE FATALITY - On May 1, 2009, a 59-year old dredge operator with 3 years of experience was fatally injured at a dredging operation. The victim was trying to manually guide the wire cable onto one of two positioning winches on the dredge when he became entangled in it.
Best Practices
- Conduct a complete pre-operational inspection of equipment that includes checking winches and cables.
- Install new winch cables to reel in the same direction as the old cable.
- Inspect winches to confirm proper reeling of the cable.
- Assign two persons to perform maintenance tasks on dredges.
- Block equipment against hazardous motion before performing maintenance tasks.
- Label valve bank levers to indicate direction of movement.
- Do not wear loose clothing when working near moving machine parts.
Additional Information
This is the 8th fatality reported in calendar year 2009 in the metal and nonmetal mining industries. As of this date in 2008, there were 7 fatalities reported in these industries. This is the 3rd Machinery fatality in 2009. There were 2 Machinery fatalities in the same period in 2008.