A resources employee became hospitalised after multiple heavy vehicles crushed him.
A driver was recently pinned between a stationary fuel truck and front-end wheel loader at an undisclosed Queensland mine site.
Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) confirmed the impact caused serious injuries.
“The driver parked the fuel truck close to the crushing plant and was fuelling plant in that area. Part of the fuelling task required the worker to be at the rear of the fuel truck. While at the rear of the fuel truck, the worker was crushed between the rear of the front-end loader and the rear of the fuel truck,” RSHQ mineral mines and quarries deputy chief inspector Trevor Brown said in a safety alert.
An official investigation initially found colleagues might not have immediately noticed the incident.
“An exclusion zone had not been defined to account for other plant operating in close proximity to the fuel truck. The noise of the operating crushing plant may have disguised the noise of vehicles operating in the near vicinity. Vehicles that could have been fuelled at a purpose-built fuelling facility were being fuelled in the operational area,” Brown said.
Investigators made the following recommendations:
Site senior executives should review, identify, monitor and control situations where interactions between pedestrians and operating vehicles take place to prevent pedestrian incidents.
- develop and implement a traffic management plan that documents effective controls that manages vehicle interaction risks
- utilise collision avoidance/proximity detection technology to help vehicle operators avoid vehicle collisions
- train, assess and monitor workers to ensure they understand and implement control measures
- establish exclusion zones to physically separate pedestrians and operating vehicles
- properly immobilise and isolate vehicles before cleaning, working on or refuelling
- include effective collision prevention controls in initial mine design and layout
- only let vehicles recommence operating once pedestrians have left the area
- replace in-field fuelling of vehicles with purpose-built refuelling stations
- prevent operating vehicles from entering the exclusion zone
- stop all vehicles if pedestrian access is necessary.
Investigations continue.
Click here to read the full safety alert.
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