Weekly incident summary - week ending 26 August 2022
41 reportable incidents, 4 summarised below
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Dangerous incident | IncNot0042814
Open cut coal mine
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Summary: A worker was installing an 8 metre cable bolt with a hand-held bolter on the offside of a longwall belt.
The worker failed to notice that the bolt was not fully inserted into the hole and the nut had cracked and continued the rotation of the bolter. The nut travelled the full distance of the thread and once at the end of the thread, the hand-held bolter started to rotate.
The worker’s left hand came free of the handle, but they maintained grip with their right hand rotating towards the rib. The worker let go of the bolter and raised their right arm to protect their face and in the process hyper extended their arm, dislocating their right shoulder and suffering an elbow laceration.
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Comments to industry: Mine operators and contractors should ensure that risk controls associated with rotating hand-held bolters are documented and implemented by workers. This should include operating in restricted areas and where the operating height of the bolter may affect the worker’s ability to control the bolter if it begins to rotate.
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Dangerous incident | IncNot0042847
Underground coal mine
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Summary: While lowering a drill rig at the end of the bolting cycle on a continuous miner, an operator heard a loud bang and was sprayed with hydraulic oil. The worker was not injured. The guard brace was broken, causing it to move. When the drill rig was lowered, the rotary actuator clashed with the guard, which pushed the auxiliary manifold backwards. This in turn, squashed and split a hydraulic fitting.
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Comments to industry: The integrity of guards should be checked as part of the maintenance inspections of continuous miners. When guarding and other components are damaged, inspection and testing for clearances and clash points should be completed.
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Dangerous incident | IncNot0042849
Open cut coal mine
Ground or strata failure
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Summary: The edge of a dump failed, causing a slump of about 80 metres in length. No vehicles were operating on the edge at that time.
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Comments to industry: Mines should review their dump trigger action response plans (TARPs) because of continued wet weather. Water management practices around dumps should also be audited and reviewed. Geotechnical assessments of dumps should be undertaken when dump material changes or the dump design is modified.
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Dangerous incident | IncNot0042874
Open cut coal mine
Roads or other vehicle operating areas
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Summary: A light vehicle narrowly avoided a collision with a haul truck at a T-intersection. Two haul trucks were approaching the intersection from different directions. The light vehicle driver was concentrating on the truck approaching on the right, which was turning into the lane adjacent to the light vehicle. The light vehicle failed to notice the truck on their left, requiring the truck to brake to avoid a collision.
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Comments to industry: Light vehicle operators need to maintain constant vigilance when driving on haul roads. It is imperative that drivers check for vehicles both left and right at T-intersections before proceeding through a corner. The design of intersection must consider height of windrows and positioning of lights that may affect the visibility of drivers. Mine operators should include worker fatigue monitoring and response technology as a part of their fatigue risk analysis.
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Other publications of interest
These incidents are included for your review. The NSW Resources Regulator does not endorse the findings or recommendations of these incidents. It is your legal duty to exercise due diligence to ensure the business complies with its work health and safety obligations.
International (other, non-fatal)
NZ MinEx
A grader was undergoing maintenance repairs in a workshop. After being dropped off at the workshop to pick up the grader, an operator decided to clean the exterior windows of a grader. While standing on the third rung of a 5-step A-frame ladder (less than 2 m), the operator fell and hit their head on the concrete workshop floor. The operator suffered a skull fracture, intercranial bleed and head laceration and was transported to the hospital for further assessment and care.
Details
National (other, non-fatal)
WorkSafe Victoria
On 4 August 2022, a side discharge conveyor on a screening plant at a quarry collapsed suddenly while operating. The supporting structure failed at the midpoint, instantly causing the discharge end of the conveyor to collapse. A steel diversion chute had been retrofitted to the discharge end of the conveyor several months before the incident. Clay material had also built up inside the chute. The extra weight of the steel chute and built-up material caused the failure. The steel diversion chute was not supplied, installed or checked by the manufacturer of the plant. No employees were injured in the incident.
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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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