Weekly incident summary - week ending 10 April 2020
25 reportable incidents, 3 summarised below
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Serious injury | IncNot0037143
Underground coal mine
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Summary: While installing a ventilation tube, a worker was sucked into the tube and briefly lost consciousness. Two other workers were unable to remove the worker from the tube until an auxiliary fan was shut down. The auxiliary fan’s variable inlet vanes were set to 13 cubic metres per second and the ventilation tubing was about 90 metres to the face via a 90 degree elbow and a T-piece.
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Recommendations to industry: Control measures and procedures in relation to installing ventilation tubes while auxiliary fans are in operation should include identifying:
- safe operating ranges for workers installing ventilation tubes
- the sequence of steps to take, in order to safely add ducting inline
- guards on the most inbye tube, to minimise the risk of workers being sucked into or against the ducting while working adjacent to it (e.g. on continuous miner platforms).
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Dangerous incident | IncNot0037126
Open cut coal mine
Principal mining hazard: Fire or explosion
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Summary: A worker saw smoke coming from a sound suppression box on top of a hydraulic cooler room on an excavator. The worker manually activated the fire suppression system and a water cart was also used to extinguish the fire. The excavator had undergone maintenance earlier in the day, and fish plates had been welded onto the bottom of the sound suppression box. The excavator had been idle for about an hour before starting up.
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Recommendations to industry: Inspections conducted after maintenance, particularly when hot work has been undertaken, should identify new hazards that may have been inadvertently introduced as a result of that task. Appropriate controls should be put in place to manage the risks.
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Dangerous incident | IncNot0037125
Open cut coal mine
Principal mining hazard: Roads or other operating areas
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Summary: A dump truck was reversing to a tip head when it breached a windrow, with two wheels going through the windrow. No-one was injured.
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Recommendations to industry: Mines should have systems in place to ensure windrow standards are regularly verified and maintained. Ground stability should be considered when planning a dump site. Mine operators should review how their supervisors monitor critical controls and determine what actions to take when critical controls are identified as being inadequate. Tipping procedures should be reviewed to ensure that dump trucks do not tip close to edges. Dumps should be maintained in a straight line, with windrows constructed of predominantly dry, competent material to a specified height.
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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 Safety Performance Measures Reports and our Business Activity Reports
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