Pit & Quarry, June 2013

SPONSORED BY Silver bullet for injury prevention Falling bins are rare but not so rare are slowly deteriorating electric hand tools Plugs cords and drills do not fail catastrophically The tools accumulate small insults Even after the damage is obvious it is still good for one more job and is not taken out of service was obvious after the fatality Corrosion had been obvious before the death The fatality report did not include comments about systematic inspections and measurements of the steel supports over the years However being able to see through the web of an I beam it is usually an indication that its weight bearing capacity has been reduced OK falling bins are rare Not so rare are slowly deteriorating electric hand tools Plugs cords and drills do not fail catastrophically The tools accumulate small insults Even after the damage is obvious it is still good for one more job and is not taken out of service The operational gap in the article between inspection and action is not new Its a familiar story The inspectors and engineers did their jobs The faults were discovered and reported to management The loss control system failed when the facts were not translated into corrective action The quotation is old news The problem is so current it is festering as you read P Q Carl R Metzgar CSP has more than 30 years of safety and health experience in the aggregates industry He provides consulting services with a specialization in program evaluation training compliance and loss control and can be reached at 336 766 1218 cmetz46840@ aol com BY CARL METZGAR A couple months ago an article claimed that when a damaging incident is thoroughly investigated in detail it is generally found that the faulty work practices or compromised equipment involved had been used several times without injury or damage This claim was so adamant after I first read it that I was startled but then the truth dawned on me This is a recurring story Leafing through old magazines can be interesting entertaining and enlightening Recently I was presented with an opportunity to leaf through an 1884 edition of Scientific American Heres a snippet of what I found in that edition Bridges like car wheels do not break down without showing signs of weakness long in advance Normally these bridges have been inspected and probably the flaws been reported but so long as no attention is paid to the defects the inspection is a farce A dangerous wheel on the same road if allowed to run under a passenger car would cause the instant dismissal of whoever allowed the car to proceed knowing that it was defective If the true or inside history of many bridge accidents could be written it would be found that numerous warnings had been given and disregarded The condition of the structures had not been hidden from the officers and had been continued long after they had passed the point where danger was imminent at each passage of a train Mysterious causes are no longer admitted by engineers of repute to have a place in engineering science However the inevitable conclusion is that failures of all kinds of engineering structures may be anticipated and prevented by taking proper precautions The translation Although many aggregate plants have rail sidings only a few have bridges waiting to fail flat wheels or hot railcar bearings Still the experience of observing a deficiency and failing to correct it does occur in sand gravel and stone plants The observation at the beginning of the article is that injuries damage and production interruptions have an ignored history just waiting to be made PLUGS CORDS AND DRILLS DO NOT FAIL CATASTROPHICALLY THE TOOLS ACCUMULATE SMALL INSULTS useful The railroad story details in the extended quote apply to bridges and car wheels and neither of them breaks down without showing signs of weakness long in advance But that is the railroad thats the other guy It is not safe for an aggregate plant manager area manager or vice president to say that neglect couldnt happen here Alas within the last few years a bin collapsed and killed a truck driver who was having his truck loaded The bin was in plain sight and the corrosion of the supporting members ISTOCKPHOTO COM WILLOWPIX 52 PIT QUARRY June 2013 www pitandquarry com