05:17 pm, Wednesday 23 June, 2010

A man has died on Monday in an industrial incident in central Queensland.

The 57-year-old man was killed at a Scotland St, Bundaberg business site, Police said.

A Department of Community Safety spokesman said an emergency call was made at 8.15am (AEST). Ambulance and fire services responded to the scene.

It was reported the man had been trapped under an equipment.

He had been freed by his colleagues before the arrival of the paramedics at the site.

The man, who suffered multiple injuries, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland inspectors are expected to investigate the incident.

Report by Julia Alder - Do you have an OHS News Story - Let us know

03:28 pm, Monday 24 May, 2010

A recycling company has been fined $50,000 last week over an industrial accident involving a 15-year-old employee.

The Midland Magistrates Court found the company guilty to failing to provide a safe workplace and causing serious harm to a worker.

The incident took place at the Midland company’s worksite in September 2006, where the young worker was using a baling machine.

The machine works by placing plastic product through the input door into a large metal box. The machine’s hydraulic ram then compresses and bales the product, where it comes out through the output door.

The hydraulic ram will not run unless the input door is closed. However, the ram will still eject bales when the output door is open.

Another door at the side of the equipment can be opened, allowing workers to strap bales. The ram can operate while the side door is open, and it cannot be fully closed until the bale is ejected through the output door.

The company’s workers had been trained to close the side door as far as possible after strapping the bale. Once the bale was ejected, the workers were instructed to close the door fully before retracting the ram.

On the day of the accident, another worker was at the output door extracting a completed bale.

The worker who was injured was situated by the open side door while the ram was retracted.

As the ram retracted past the side door, the young man’s right foot was crushed between the ram and the edge of the metal box’s.

As a result, the worker had to undergo surgery to have his two middle toes amputated.

According to WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne, the case shows the dangers of having inadequately guarded machinery and not implementing safe work practices.

“Anyone in control of a workplace containing machinery with hazardous moving parts needs to ensure that those moving parts are safely guarded,” Ms Lyhne said.

“Guarding of the moving parts of machinery is still one of the easiest and most obvious means of minimising the risk of injury to machinery operators, and I strongly urge employers in workplaces with machinery to ensure that it is safe to operate.

“It is also up to the employer to ensure that workers observe the safe work practices that are in place. However in this case, it would have been better to ensure that the machine was safe to operate in the first place.

“After this incident, the machine was fitted with an interlock switch – similar to those on the input and output doors – to prevent the ram from retracting when the side door was open but still allowing it to move forward to eject a bale.

“This modification only cost around $1700, and could have prevented the worker from losing two toes if it had been done earlier.”

Report by Julia Alder - Do you have an OHS News Story - Let us know

08:23 pm, Wednesday 19 May, 2010

A 15-year-old boy has died following a lathe accident where his arm was severed.

A coroner’s inquest has been ordered into the tragic incident at a metal parts factory in Birch Street, Condell Park on May 4.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said the boy, who was under a pre-apprenticeship employment, was in a situation where he could be retained as an apprentice if the company determines he is fit for the work.

She said the incident raises several questions, including why the boy was permitted to work with a dangerous plant despite having little experience.

“It is a terrible tragedy,” she said.

“It’s such an unusual circumstance for a kid to lose his life in an industrial accident.

“We don’t know whether there were other witnesses. It was a very small business and the owner was at another site.

“Even in the worst, most unsafe workplace, it is unusual for a boy that age to be operating a lathe.”

According to WorkCover spokesman John Kirby, the boy was apparently operating the lathe and left it running without him realising.

“He went to lean on it and the lathe amputated his right arm below the elbow,” he said.

The business owner’s wife found the boy and immediately called an ambulance. He was transported to Westmead Hospital, where he succumbed to death.

WorkCover investigators have already visited the plant, while the police is conducting its own investigation.

Report by Julia Alder - Do you have an OHS News Story - Let us know

11:41 am, Monday 17 May, 2010

The former general manager of an Adelaide company where a worker has been killed has told the South Australian Coroner’s Court that the firm’s owner got frustrated over the SafeWork investigation.

The inquest centers on an industrial accident at the company’s tooling factory at Edwardstown in June 2004.

An 18-year-old apprentice was working around a horizontal boring machine when his dustcoat got pulled into the plant’s drill. He later succumbed to death after suffering multiple fatal injuries.

The Industrial Court has imposed a record fine against the company, based on the investigation conducted by SafeWork SA.

The inquest court was told by the former manager that the owner became frustrated over the conduct of the investigation by SafeWork staff, describing the safety watchdog’s inspector as “aggressive.”

Report by Julia Alder - Do you have an OHS News Story - Let us know

01:38 pm, Thursday 13 May, 2010

A young worker who died in a tragic industrial accident was described as a person who needed more time to be confident whenever he took on a new task, the South Australian Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.

A toolmaker who worked with the apprentice appeared before the court, saying the young man took longer to be comfortable when assigned a new job but didn’t make mistakes.

He added there was no stopping the worker once he understood the work at hand.

“Once he grasped things, he was off, leaps and bounds,” the toolmaker said.

An 18-year-old apprentice was killed in 2004 while working around a horizontal boring machine.

The unguarded plant got snagged to his dust coat, which dragged him into the large drill and flung him around.

He sustained numerous fatal injuries, including brain hemorrhage, torn spine, broken arms and legs, and severed feet.

He momentarily regained consciousness prior to the arrival of the ambulance. However, he died in the hospital the next day because of the multiple injuries.

The Industrial Court fined the employer $72,000 last year after pleading guilty to violating workplace safety laws.

Asked if the young worker made many errors while working, the witness said he couldn’t remember any major mistakes.

“Big ones are where you have to throw steel away,” he said.

“I don’t recall ever having to throw something away with [him].”

The inquest was ongoing.

Report by Julia Alder - Do you have an OHS News Story - Let us know

06:07 am, Friday 16 April, 2010

Authorities are still determining the cause of a fire which destroyed an factory in Brisbane’s south on Wednesday.

Over 80 fire fighters worked together to put out the flames at the carpet underlay and glue business in Yatala.

Queensland Fire and Rescue Service Superintendent Jeff King said they are checking the air quality in the area.

“The biggest problem was the actual intensity of the fire due to the foam underlay products that was actually involved in the fire,” he said.

He said their scientific officers started monitoring the air toxicity after the fire gave off thick black smoke.

“Any of the smoke is all within safe limits however … you can just sort of smell that in the air,” he said.

“So if anybody finds that it maybe a bit of an irritant to them then the basic advice is not to go outside, stay indoors, close their doors and windows.”

Report by Julia Alder - Do you have an OHS News Story - Let us know

04:15 pm, Tuesday 30 March, 2010

The Brisbane Industrial Magistrates Court has fined an agricultural firm over injuries sustained by a teenage worker at its vegetable processing plant in Ivy Street, Killarney, in October 2008.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching section 28 of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, having failed to ensure the safety of its workers.

Magistrate Cornack imposed a $43,000 fine and ordered the company to pay costs amounting to $2,919 on Monday.

The Court was told the 18-year-old casual worker was cleaning potato processing equipment when her arms were dragged into the machine by a rotating auger screw. A colleague shut the machine down, but the woman remained trapped for over an hour.

The woman suffered injuries to her arms including multiple fractures, lacerations, and severed tendons and arteries.

Because of the injuries, she now has virtually no use of her right hand and some disability to her left arm. She has also suffered psychological trauma, including nightmares and flashbacks. She has not returned to work since the incident.

During its investigation, the Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigation found the company did not have a safe system for performing the task of cleaning the machine without exposing workers to risks from moving parts.

After the incident, the company has improved on its safety system. It has secured the machine guard by preventing access to the auger screw, and it has developed a work method statement for cleaning and operating the machine and for training workers.

Report by Julia Alder - Do you have an OHS News Story - Let us know