A Queensland coal mine worker has narrowly escaped serious injury after nearly being crushed by a reversing bulldozer.
Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) Chief Inspector of Coal Mines Jacques le Roux says there was a risk of a fatality for an event that could have been avoided.
“Worryingly, our initial investigation has shown that the incident occurred because operators were routinely parking in an undocumented position to do crib time driver swaps,” le Roux says.
“Even though it was not the designated location to stop and swap operators, over time it had become normalised as the location and that created danger.
“What should have been a simple driver swap almost turned into a fatality because of a sequence of failures including a failure to establish positive communication and not following proper procedures.”
This news comes after RSHQ issued a safety alert after identifying a trend involving the ineffective isolation of generating and mobile plants on mine sites in Queensland.
Isolating mobile plants on mine sites prevents unintended movement and hazardous energy release during maintenance. This requires applying lockable battery or starter isolators and verifying zero-energy states before any work begins.
RSHQ is taking action to alert mine and quarry sites to the danger posed to prevent someone from being hurt or killed.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
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