Manual Handling

• While unloading fencing pales on to racking after manufacturing, a small metal splinter entered a staff member’s finger. 3 days later he was taken to hospital & has been absent for around 6 months due to complications. He was wearing gloves. The splinter was removed just after it entered his finger – he pulled it out himself but did not report his injury.
  
• A sawyer with 13 years experience was in the process of manually handling an offcut through the bed of the Cold Saw in order for the crane to gain access to lift into the scrap bin. As he pulled the offcut through the saw bed, he trapped his thumb between the offcut and the rollers. He was treated by a first aider at the scene then taken to hospital for treatment.
  
• A new employee, recently trained as a sawyer, was cutting a piece of RHS Steel on a Behringer HBP360/740 saw. The material was too short to reach the power rollers on the input side of the saw. The employee pushed the steel, using his left hand, hard up against the measuring device. This activated the overhead clamp, trapping his hand/fingers between the clamp and the steel.
   

• An operator entered a pallet making facility to collect blocks of wood for use on a Trap making line. When he couldn’t find any blocks of the desired length, he decided to use a circular saw to cut some. After cutting some blocks, his glove got caught on the blade, drawing his hand into the blade itself. The operator lost the skin on his right hand fore and index fingers.
   

• Steel tubes were loaded onto a lorry with flat sheets on top of them. The banding on the steel tubes broke and the flat sheets fell from the lorry onto the road. Three steel warehousemen went to the aid of the lorry driver and all four of them lifted the sheets back onto the lorry. A few days later one of the men was off sick with a bad back, which developed into a long absence from work.
  

Workplace Transport

• A Supervisor sustained serious injuries to his legs and pelvis when he was struck by mobile plant (a large type of fork lift truck). The accident occurred in an area of substantial transport activity involving road, rail and pedestrian movements. Following several weeks in hospital, the injuries proved fatal.
  

• A supplier’s articulated lorry reversed into a site warehouse without permission and collided with the racking causing major damage (the racking had to be dismantled). There were no injuries. The warehouse supervisor attempted to alert the driver by shouting stop, but to no avail. He eventually ran out through the building and back through the entrance and banged on the cab to attract the driver’s attention. The driver could not hear any external communication due to having his cab radio playing at high volume!
  

• A coil was being lowered onto a vee shaped coil car. As the coil touched the buggy, it moved up against mechanical stops - this caused the coil to become unstable. The ‘C’ hook slipped out allowing the coil to fall into the pit and causing damage to the material. The root cause of the incident was that the coil was put down on the coil car off-centre. An attempt was made to relift the load. Contributory factors were: inability to park coil car against stops; attempting to carry out multiple tasks simultaneously; consequences of second lift were not assessed. The task should be broken down into specific sequences, e.g. position coil car; lower coil and check if central before placing on car; place on car; transfer car.
  

• After removing the side support posts in preparation for off-loading a vehicle using sidetracker, a bundle of 4” (10 x lengths 6.4m long) steel tube fell off the side of the lorry. The banding burst on striking the ground. There were no injuries. This clearly demonstrates the value of having an effective ‘exclusion zone’ around vehicles when being loaded/off-loaded, as was in operation at this site. Investigation showed that 6 of the 13 bundles were incorrectly positioned on the vehicle, thereby making the load extremely unstable and dangerous.
  

• During off-loading a vehicle, one of the slings on a two tonne bundle of steel tubes over-rode the overhead crane hook safety catch, fell to the floor and damaged other stock. There were no injuries. The site had been overstocked which was causing difficulty positioning the vehicle correctly. The vehicle load was difficult to sling because of the low crane clearance and inappropriate sling length. The load was not configured correctly for the type of slings in use. The operator had exceeded the safe angle for slinging due to the above factors.
  

• A mixed delivery of steel, including a bundle of steel tubes, was loaded onto a lorry and checked. When the driver was out making deliveries, the banding around the tubes snapped and one of the tubes shot from the load due to the weight of the other tubes and the mixed load. The incident occurred when the lorry was stationary at traffic lights and the tube hit a pedestrian who received injuries to his mouth and head. He bit his tongue on impact.
  

Material Handling

• On completion of a processing order, a competent sawyer moved the cut stock within the saw area, ready for despatch to the edge of the bay. Having completed the lift, he removed the far chain and then while stretching, threw the near chain around the back of the bundle. With this action he inadvertently hooked a protruding skip and believing the chain was free, lifted the block. The stock was tipped towards him. He was trapped between the stock and a saw rolled bench.
  

• A lift of four palletised bundles 0.85x906x1486mm, total 3.510 tonnes was being transferred after processing on a kombi blanking line to the storage area. The lift had been partially lowered to approx. 2.5 metres from the floor when it fell striking adjacent bundles causing retaining bands to break and material to spill into walkway. The cause was the fracture of the internal pin between the load cell and the mounting eye of the 5 tonne Challenger Crane Weigher. The operator was following the load at a safe distance as required by Safe Working Practice. No injury was sustained.
  

Slips and Trips

• A fitter reported to a 60” slitting line to check an oil leak on a scrap bailer. A service trench, approx. 500mm deep, adjacent to the bailer was covered by a number of plates. When the fitter stood on one of the plates it gave way: he slipped and fell into the trench, knocking his chest and knee into an electrical control box. After investigation, it was revealed that a contractor had recently completed maintenance work in the area, which may have involved removing the trench plate. Following the contractor’s completion of work, the area was not inspected by company.
  

Falls from height

• Three contract employees were in the process of repairing a warehouse roof. One of the employees stepped on an area where two pieces of roof sheeting joined together and the sheets gave way. The employee fell to the waist and was subsequently secured by his fall protection, which was properly hooked to a horizontal lifeline. The person's colleagues assisted in the rescue. There were no injuries.
  

Struck by

• An experienced operator was loading a vehicle using a pendant controlled overhead crane. Whilst lowering the hoist to pick up a coil he felt the pendant go slack. He stopped his procedure and turned to investigate, on doing so the box holding the pendant to the overhead rail fell, narrowly missing him. The box fell approx. 5 metres, ending up suspended by a chain some 1.8 metres from the floor. The junction box should have been fastened to the rail by 2 ‘U’ bolts. On inspection, it was found that 1 bolt was missing and the other had failed, resulting in the junction box falling.
  

• Whilst lifting a 19.5 tonne coil using a 20 tonne SWL coil grab attached to a 25 tonne SWL Morris overhead crane, the hook on the overhead crane failed causing the coil to drop 20 ft. on to the slitter coil car pit below. There were no injuries sustained but damage to property included the coil, coil grabs and the coil car pit protection cover. After investigation it was concluded that the hook failed whilst under load; the hook was subject to regular inspections; past inspection records did not show any indications which may have lead to failure; the operator was using the equipment corrector and SWP was followed.
  

• A warehouseman was offloading a lift of 12.2 meter angle from the back of a vehicle when the chain, which was working within SWL, failed. The lift fell onto the trailer bed. No one was hurt and no damage occurred. The chain was 10mm x 4.5 mtr single leg fitted with safety hook & clutch proof loaded to 6.3 tonnes /SWL 3.15 tonne. The chain had received its statutory inspection only 2 months prior to the event. The warehouseman was working to current Safe Working Procedures.