Some years ago, I nearly killed myself in an industrial accident. It was March, and there was still a lot of snow on the ground. My neighbor, an experienced equipment operator, had just finished excavating a “dug” well in his back yard and was attempting to install a 20-foot-long by three-foot diameter section of cmp (corrugated metal pipe). He was using an older cable-operated, Bucyrus-Erie with a clam-shell bucket, but the horizontally-rigged pipe kept swinging in an arc and proper placement was becoming impossible. He looked at me in frustration and, being a typical male, I saw a solution. I simply snagged one end of the pipe to stop the rotation. At that point, the excavator tipped forward and the pipe and bucket hit me mid-section and drove me into the snow-bank.
I should have known better. Many years prior, I had been trained during a large construction project that “tag lines” should always be used in a situation like that. Sure, I only suffered severely bruised thighs but, what if?
At some time in our lives, we will all experience a “what if” situation and hopefully will walk away with a deeper understanding of the need to actively pursue safer living. We know that the business of ski area operations can be a real challenge due to ever-changing weather conditions, hostile terrain, unforgiving equipment and the added unknowns of human actions. While it is not possible to create a totally safe environment, we can help promote a safer work place within each or our organizations through education, training and good old common sense.
Here’s a sobering fact to ponder as we begin the summer maintenance and construction season: workplace fatalities have increased by more than 33 percent in the past decade. Most of these deaths occurred in the construction industry, and a look at the causes is a good way to remind yourself to keep safety a top priority during your construction projects this spring, summer and fall.
An article last fall in the Engineering News Record, “Investigators Show the Routine Errors behind Jobsite Deaths,” documented the rise in industrial accidents and reported on 80 accidents investigated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and its 20-year old Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE program). The authors offered many reasons for the large increase in work place fatalities—casual familiarity of older workers with procedures, over-energetic younger workers, improper equipment maintenance and lack of serious training programs—and proposed steps to eliminate or reduce these types of accidents.
Many of these preventable accidents could just as easily have happened at most alpine resorts. So we present the following seven accident summaries, taken from the NIOSH website (www.cdc.gov/niosh/face/stateface), as cautionary tales.
1. Welder Falls
A third-year apprentice welder was working alone on the third floor of a building. She was setting up her equipment in preparation for her welding assignment. Other workers had previously built a cover for the four-foot-by-nine-foot vent opening adjacent to her work area, but that cover had been removed by a different subcontractor two days earlier. The victim stepped back and fell through the opening, landing 30 feet below on a concrete floor. Her body was discovered sometime later.
Caution: Reemphasize and reinforce the importance of following safe job procedures before performing repairs (or maintenance).
2. Lathe Operator Caught
A 40-year-old lathe operator was an experienced machinist. During a normal work day, he had raised the chuck shield to install a new part and had not returned the guard to the proper position. The chuck was rotating at only 630 rpm. The victim’s glove was caught in the chuck and he was pulled into the rotating lathe. He died three days later.
Caution: Although most accidents are caused by human error, it is prudent to believe that an active programs of reminders, such as replacing guards on drive lines, could make a measurable difference in any workplace.
3. Technician Electrocuted
A 30-year-old male electrical technician was assisting a company service representative with testing the voltage-regulating unit on a new piece of industrial equipment. After testing various low-voltage wiring, it was determined that the regulator was not producing the correct amount of current. Since the wiring was not labeled or color-coded, the service representative instructed the technician to tug on the low-voltage wires as he attempted to identify each wire from his perch on top of the “energized” control cabinet. A short way into the project, the representative heard the technician “making a gurgling sound,” and looked down to see the victim “shaking as though he were being shocked.” CPR was quickly administered. He was pronounced dead about 1 hour and 45 minutes later.
Caution: Lock out/tag out can be a pain sometimes, but. . . . Also, how many times have you poked your head into a fully energized motor control cabinet?
4. Open Trench Collapses
A 17-year-old laborer and coworker (pipe-setter) were working in an open trench laying pipe. Protective shoring had been removed the day before to allow removal of old broken pieces of pipe. Suddenly, one of the unprotected walls collapsed, partially burying the Michigan laborer to his mid-chest and coworker to his knees, with soil. The foreman, who was working at ground level, quickly called 911 and requested EMS. Law enforcement, EMS and the fire department all responded within 5 minutes. In the meantime, coworkers had jumped into the collapsed trench to dig out the trapped workmen, even after the operations officer, realizing that the trench walls remained unstable and hazardous, directed the coworkers to leave the trench until protective devices could be installed.
Firefighters set sheets of plywood along the top of the opposite side from the collapse to provide a more stable place from which paramedics could lower oxygen to the men. Coworkers placed an oxygen mask on the youngest victim. By this time, the primary victim was semi-conscious, with a weak pulse and labored respiration.
Both victims were freed and placed on backboards, lifted to ground level and to the aid of waiting paramedics. While undergoing surgery later, the laborer experienced cardiac arrest and died, 4 hours and 23 minutes after the incident.
Caution: According to the Michigan Department of Labor, the construction contractor had a safety program, but had not implemented the program or provided the victim with safety training. A document acknowledging receipt of the Michigan OSHA Standard Handbook had been signed by the victim. Weekly “toolbox talks” had been held by the foreman, talks that included trench safety, but the victim had not yet taken part in these talks.
5. Fall From Tower
A 40-year-old male, plus a coworker, were installing a new phone service on a cellular phone tower. Each was working at his own task and spaced about 6 feet apart. The 40-year-old had completed his work and had to move to his right to the tower leg where the safety-climb device/system was located. Coworkers did not see what the victim was doing at the time he fell. They did hear a sound, which may have been the metal hook from the victim’s safety equipment hitting the tower. It was only seconds until they saw the victim strike boxes on the ground and come to rest. The North Carolina resident was pronounced dead at the scene from massive head injuries. It is believed the victim may have unhooked his positioning (safety) equipment just prior to the fall.
Caution: Fall protection procedures and devices are working their way into the ski industry. Some users consider certain required procedures unsafe while others “just don’t like it.” Some areas require the use of fall protection devices at all times when workers are ascending, working on or descending lift towers. Regardless of the intent or the program in place, if a maintenance person doesn’t “tie-off,” even when the device is available, there isn’t a system available that will protect him.
6. Ride Attendant Dragged
A 16-year-old amusement ride attendant died after he was caught and dragged by an operating ride. The victim had attempted to board the ride when it was operating at full speed. As he jumped on the seat step, he lost his balance and fell.
Caution: Recommendations include most of the requisite safety policies, especially cause and effect. Sometimes bad judgment is just that.
7. Laborer Struck by Bucket
A laborer and the company president were using a CAT excavator equipped with a quick-disconnect bucket-coupler. The laborer was connecting a 3-leg bridle (sling) to a manhole section while the company president was operating the excavator. The soon-to-become victim had connected two bridle legs and was connecting the third when the bucket suddenly disconnected from the excavator and struck the victim. He was pronounced dead at the scene from blunt trauma to the head.
Caution: Examination of the machine after the incident identified the absence of a check valve, plus intermittent power to the disconnect warning indicator light and buzzer. In addition, the warning light and buzzer were located behind the operator’s seat.
