DEATH TOLL RISES

By on July 3, 2003

In a recent New Zealand quarrying fatality, a crusher operator was killed when the conveyor belt that he was standing on ran backwards due to a component failure in the head drum.

The accident occurred after the operator stopped the 30 metre conveyor and locked it out apparently because of slippage in the head drum.  Due to the plant maintenance fitter being unavailable, the operator attempted to conduct the repairs himself.  He then proceeded to remove a build up of rock from around a chute where a conveyor from the primary crushers leads onto the stacker conveyor.

A high pressure hose was used to clear the material down the conveyor toward the tail drum.  Without the blockage the belt was free to move and under loading from the several tonnes of material on the belt it ran backwards.  The operator fell over and was unable to remove himself from the belt before being forced into a narrow gap between the conveyor belt and the chute.  He died of his injuries in this position.

After an investigation it was found that the cone clamp devices that secure the head drum to the drive shaft had suffered catastrophic failure.  Further investigations are being carried out to determine the failure mechanisms of the components.

A haul truck operator in a Western Australian open pit mine died on the 6th of May when the tray of another truck rolled backward into the cab of the truck he was driving.  The driver was crushed and subsequently died from the injuries.  Further investigations are currently be undertaken by Inspectors from the Department of Industry and Resources in Western Australia.

In another accident a rock fall one kilometre underground in a Tasmanian Mine has caused the death of a miner.  The surviving members of the five man work team were being treated for shock on the night of the accident.  Two miners died from rock fall in a similar incident in June 2001.

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