Limestone

Fatality #11 for Metal/Nonmetal Mining 2015

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m11On May 18, 2015, a 59-year old delivery truck driver with 32 years of experience was killed at a cement plant.  The victim arrived at the plant to deliver drums. After opening the trailer doors, the driver walked to the cab of his truck and proceeded to climb the steps to get back in the cab when he fell backwards onto the ground striking the back of his head.

Best Practices

  • Always use the “Three Points of Contact” method. Ensure that either two hands and one foot, or one hand and two feet are in contact with the ladder at all times when mounting and dismounting equipment.
  • Equipment should be designed to minimize the height of the first step from the ground and be provided with hand-holds to facilitate  “Three Points of Contact”
  • Keep hands free of any objects when mounting or dismounting equipment.
  • Maintain traction by ensuring footwear is free of potential slipping hazards such as dirt, oil, and grease. Slip resistant material can be coated to existing foot holds and handrails.
  • Always face equipment when mounting or dismounting it.
  • Always maintain and use the access provided by the manufacturer.

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf), Overview (pdf).

Fatality #23 for Metal/Nonmetal Mining 2014

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m23On December 1, 2014, a 46-year-old contract truck driver with 26 years of experience was killed at a limestone mine.  The articulating haul truck he was operating traveled over a roadway berm and went into a large pond.  Dive teams extricated the victim from the truck.

Best Practices

  • Task train mobile equipment operators adequately in all phases of mobile equipment operation before operating mobile equipment.
  • Conduct adequate pre-operational checks and correct any defects affecting safety in a timely manner prior to operating mobile equipment.
  • Always wear a seat belt when operating self-propelled mobile equipment.
  • Maintain control of self-propelled mobile equipment while it is in motion.
  • Operate mobile equipment at speeds consistent with the conditions of roadways, tracks, grades, clearance, visibility, curves, and traffic.
  • Provide and maintain adequate berms or guardrails on the banks of roadways where a drop-off exists.

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf)

Fatality #18 for Metal/Nonmetal Mining 2014

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m18On August 25, 2014, a 54-year-old truck driver with 1 year of experience was killed at a limestone mine.  The victim went to a storage building to get some wooden planks.  He climbed a stack of loaded pallets to get to the planks that were near the rafters and fell approximately 8 feet to the ground below.  The next day two coworkers arrived at the mine and found the victim at approximately 6:05 a.m.

Best Practices

  • Establish and discuss safe work procedures before beginning work. Identify and control all hazards associated with the work to be performed and use methods to properly protect persons.
  • Ensure that persons are trained, including task-training, to understand the hazards associated with the work being performed.
  • Develop a plan to store supplies and other items in an accessible way to ensure ease of retrieval and transportation.
  • Always be aware of your surroundings and any hazards that may be present.
  • Provide and maintain a safe means of access to all working places.  Always work from a stable position.
  • Do not assign a person to work alone in areas where hazardous conditions exist that would endanger his or her safety.
  • Account for all persons at the end of each shift.

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf)

Fatality #9 for Metal/Nonmetal Mining 2014

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ftl2014m09On February 27, 2014, a 27-year-old contract mechanic with 2 years of experience was injured at an underground limestone mine.  The victim was repairing a hydraulic pump on a scaler when fell from an attached walkway approximately five feet to the ground.  He was airlifted to a hospital where he died the next day.

Best Practices

  • Ensure that persons are trained, including task-training, to understand the hazards associated with the work being performed.
  • Establish and discuss safe work procedures before beginning work. Identify and control all hazards associated with the work to be performed and use methods to properly protect persons.
  • Conduct work place examinations before beginning any work.
  • Do not place yourself in a position that will expose you to hazards while performing a task.
  • Ensure effective gates, safety chains, or railings are used and properly maintained where openings may exist that could pose a hazard.

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf), Overview (powerpoint), Overview (pdf).

Fatality #5 & #6 for Metal/Nonmetal Mining 2014

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ftl2014m05-06On April 11, 2014, a 53-year-old scaler with 8 years of experience and a 29-year old scaler with 8 years of experience were killed at an underground limestone mine.  The miners were in a basket on a boom truck scaling a pillar about 40 feet above the mine floor.  Large slabs of rock fell from the rib and struck an outrigger and the back of the truck, causing the boom to fall to the mine floor. 

Best Practices

  • Establish safe work procedures and train all persons to recognize and understand these procedures.
  • Discuss safe work procedures before beginning work.  Identify and control all hazards associated with the work to be performed and the methods to properly protect persons.
  • Always examine, sound, and test for loose ground in areas before starting to work, after blasting, and as ground conditions warrant.
  • Always wear fall protection where there is a danger of falling.
  • Scale loose material from a safe position and location.
  • Test for loose material frequently during work activities.
  • Install ground support in roof and ribs where conditions warrant.
  • Use equipment with a reach that reduces the possibility of the equipment being struck by falling material.
  • Position equipment to keep outriggers and boom from being struck by falling material.

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf), Overview (powerpoint), Overview (pdf).

Fatality #2 for Coal Mining 2014

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ftl2014c02On Friday, February 21, 2014, a 24-year-old continuous mining machine operator with 5½ years of mining experience was killed when he was pinned between the end of the boom of a continuous mining machine and the right coal rib. The miner was tramming the remote controlled continuous mining machine in the last open crosscut toward the Number 1 entry.

Best Practices
  • Install and maintain proximity detection systems to protect personnel and eliminate accidents of this type. See the proximity detection single source page on the MSHA website.
  • Ensure everyone, including the equipment operator, is outside the machine turning radius before starting or moving equipment.
  • Develop policies and procedures for starting and tramming self-propelled equipment and especially remote controlled continuous mining machines. Implement measures to assure their use which includes training all miners that are exposed to the hazards.
  • Avoid the “RED ZONE” areas when operating or working near a continuous mining machine especially when setting over or place changing a remote controlled continuous mining machine.
  • When moving continuous mining machines where the left and right traction drives are operated independently, use the low tram speed.
  • Assign another miner to assist the continuous mining machine operator when it is being moved or repositioned.
  • Frequently review, retrain, and discuss avoiding the “RED ZONE” areas.

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf).

Fatality #19 for Metal/Nonmetal Mining 2013

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ftl2013m19On December 4, 2013, a 63-year old lead man with 16 years of experience was killed at a crushed stone mine. The victim initiated a blast and was struck by flyrock from the blast. He was standing 153 feet from the nearest blast hole and was struck by rock as large as 19 inches long by 14 inches wide by 7 inches thick.

 

Best Practices

 

  • Establish and discuss safe work procedures before beginning work. Identify and control all hazards associated with the work to be performed and the methods to properly protect persons. Task train all persons in safe work procedures.
  • Maintain and use all available methods of communication, such as sirens and radios, to warn persons of an impending blast. Establish methods to ensure that all persons are out of the blasting area.
  • Guard or barricade all access routes to the blasting area to prevent the passage of persons or vehicles.
  • Before firing a blast, give ample warning to allow all persons to be evacuated.
  • Clear and remove all persons from the blasting area unless suitable blasting shelters are provided to protect persons from flyrock.
  • Verify that the blasting procedures are effective and being followed at all times.

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf).

Fatality #18 for Metal/Nonmetal Mining 2013

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ftl2013m18On November 18, 2013, a 33-year old contract electrician foreman with 14 years of experience was injured at a crushed stone mine. The victim was working in a 480-volt electrical enclosure, pulling cable for a new pump that was being installed, when he contacted energized conductors. He was transported to a hospital where he died on November 22, 2013.

Best Practices

  • Ensure that persons are trained on all electrical tests and safety equipment necessary to safely test and ground the circuit where work is to be performed.
  • Positively identify the circuit on which work is to be conducted.
  • De-energize power and ensure that the circuit is visibly open for circuits being worked on and circuits near the work area.
  • Lock and Tag! Place YOUR lock and tag on the disconnecting device.
  • Use properly rated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including Arc Flash Protection such as a hood, gloves, shirt, and pants.
  • Ensure ALL electrical components in the enclosure are de-energized by testing for voltage using properly rated test equipment.
  • Install warning labels on the terminal covers of bottom feed circuit breakers warning that “Bottom terminal lugs remain energized when the circuit breaker is open.”

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf), Overview (powerpoint), Overview (pdf).

Fatality #12 for Metal/Nonmetal Mining 2013

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ftl2013m12On September 18, 2013, a 56-year old front-end loader operator with 16 years of experience was killed at a crushed stone operation. The victim was attempting to remove a rock from a pug mill hopper when he was engulfed by the material in the hopper.

Best Practices

  • Establish and discuss policies and procedures for safely clearing a hopper.
  • Equip hoppers with mechanical devices or other effective means of handling material so persons are not required to work where they are exposed to entrapment by sliding material.
  • Install a heavy screen (grizzly) to control the size of material and prevent clogging.
  • Task train persons to recognize all potential hazardous conditions and to understand safe job procedures for elimination of the hazards before beginning work.
  • Before working on or near equipment, ensure that the discharge operating controls are deenergized and locked out.
  • Wear a safety harness and lanyard, which is securely anchored and tended by another person, prior to entering bins, hoppers, tanks, or silos.

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf), Overview (powerpoint), Overview (pdf).

Fatality #11 for Metal/Nonmetal Mining 2013

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ftl2013m11On September 16, 2013, a 58-year old truck driver with 25 years of experience was killed at a crushed stone operation. The victim was driving a loaded haul truck out of a quarry when the truck traveled through a berm and over an 80-foot highwall. The victim was ejected from the truck.

Best Practices

  • Provide and maintain adequate berms or guardrails on the banks of roadways where a drop-off exists.
  • Conduct adequate pre-operational checks prior to operating mobile equipment.
  • Always wear a seat belt when operating self-propelled mobile equipment.
  • Maintain control of self-propelled mobile equipment while it is in motion.
  • Operate mobile equipment at speeds consistent with the conditions of roadways, tracks, grades, clearance, visibility, curves, and traffic.
  • Do not exit or jump from moving mobile equipment.

Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf), Overview (powerpoint), Overview (pdf).