Weekly incident summary
15 January 2019 | ISR19-01 | Go to website
To report an incident call 1300 814 609 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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Week ending 4 January 2019
High level summary of emerging trends and our recommendations to operators.
Reportable incidents total: 73
Summarised incidents: 6
This incident summary provides information on reportable incidents and safety advice for the NSW mining industry.
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Dangerous incident | IncNot0033518
Summary: A trailer-mounted generator fell from the back of a tilt-tray truck. Two generators were being delivered. The rear generator was unstrapped, and the truck was repositioned. When the truck stopped, the generator rolled off the back of the truck. A spotter was clear of the area where the generator fell.
Recommendations to industry: Mines must have procedures in place for unloading deliveries to sites. This should include procedures for unloading by tilt tray, Hiab, forklift/telehandler, crane, as appropriate. Systems should be put in place to ensure this is available to delivery drivers.
Dangerous incident | IncNot0033509
Summary: A skid street loader knocked over a wall at a large quarry. A worker was using the loader to clean up spilled material and was loading against a shed wall. As the worker raised the bucket for the third load, the wall bowed and collapsed. No other workers were in the area.
Recommendations to industry: Spills should be eliminated as far as is reasonably practicable. In areas where spills cannot be avoided, the area should be designed to allow for safe cleaning and removal of material. The risk of falling material must also be controlled. When establishing no go zones around mobile equipment, adjacent work areas should be considered.
Dangerous incident | IncNot0033495
Summary: A fire occurred on a loader in an underground metalliferous mine. A worker was in a work basket when a spotter saw smoke and flames coming from the loader. As the worker went to lower the basket, the fire intensified. The worker jumped from the basket to help extinguish the fire. It was identified that the fire was coming from a hydraulic solenoid.
Recommendations to industry: Mines must consider the methods used for evacuating workers from work baskets when they are elevated. Scenarios must be considered where rapid escape from the work basket is required.
Dangerous incident | IncNot0033494
Summary: A haul truck was reversed to a tip head and the rear wheels sank into soft material on the edge of the dump. The incident occurred at night.
Recommendations to industry: Supervisors must monitor and assess worker compliance with dump procedures on an ongoing basis. When changes are made to procedures, workers must be involved and informed. Bunds must be designed, constructed and maintained to a standard that is suitable to protect workers. Lighting must be positioned to create a safe work area and shadows must be assessed when determining the position of lighting.
Serious injury | IncNot0033433
Summary: A worker suffered two fractured fingers while driving a shuttle car at an underground coal mine. After a shuttle car was used to pull a hose, a vent tube chain was left hanging on the rail next to the cab. The worker had his hand under the rail when the chain was driven over - the rail bent down squashing his fingers.
Recommendations to industry: A vent tube chain should only be used for the intended purpose - not for lifting or towing. Operator’s compartments must be kept clean and free of hazards.
Dangerous incident | IncNot0033387
Summary: A dozer rolled onto its side while operating on a coal stockpile, at night, in light rain. The coal was sticky at the time of the incident. The dozer operator was about one metre from the edge of a 6.6 metre drop when coal slumped, rolling the dozer. The worker was not injured.
Recommendations to industry: When working at night, work areas must be inspected, and potential hazards must be identified and communicated to relevant workers. The nature of wet and sticky material on stockpiles should be considered when establishing work procedures.
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Other publications of note
| Publication |
Issue / Topic |
| International (other, non-fatal) |
| MinEx NZ |
- Loss of control of loader
While driving a front-end loader down a ramp, the operator experienced problems with the gears. He bumped the controls, causing the bucket to suddenly lower and bringing the loader to a sudden stop. The driver was not wearing his seatbelt and was thrown into the windscreen, hitting his head.
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| National (other, non-fatal) |
| WorkSafe Vic in MinEx NZ |
- Controlling crush risks with mobile elevating platforms
Fatal incidents and serious injuries commonly happen when operators and/or passengers are crushed against fixed overhead or adjacent structures while using self- propelled boom and scissor type MEWPs.
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NT WorkSafe
(internal dist.) |
- Risk of fire in old power factor correction assemblies
A recent fire at a factory in Darwin revealed several old power factor correction assemblies installed in 1999. The capacitors contained within the assemblies have a rated life of 130,000 hours. Investigation of a fire in one such assembly found the capacitors had been in constant use for 150,000 hours and had exceeded their design life.
Multiple protective devices were installed within the assembly to guard against catastrophic failure, however these were unable to prevent an explosion in a capacitor resulting in a cascade failure and conflagration causing massive damage to factory infrastructure.
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You can find all our guidance and incident related publications (that is, safety alerts, safety bulletins, incident information releases, weekly incident summaries and investigation reports) on our website: resourcesregulator.nsw.gov.au
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*While the majority of incidents are reported and recorded within a week of the event, some are notified outside this time period. The incidents in this report therefore have not necessarily occurred in a one week period. All newly recorded incidents, whatever the incident date, are reviewed by the Chief Inspector and senior staff each week and summarised in this report. For more comprehensive statistical data refer to our Annual Performance Measures Reports.
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