Background
There have been incidents on Western Australian mining operations involving the unloading of rolls of poly pipe from vehicles or trailers. These incidents have led to serious injuries and have had the potential for worse outcomes.
In June 2015, an underground operator became trapped beneath rolls of poly pipe that fell from a trailer during unloading. The operator was releasing tie-down straps securing the rolls, when the rolls of poly pipe toppled. He over balanced, fell from the truck tray to the ground, and was struck by the falling poly pipe receiving serious crush injuries.
In late-2014, there was a near-identical incident at another mine site. A freight truck driver entered five poly pipe rolls stacked on a trailer to release the two binding straps. When the rolls separated, the driver was dragged off the trailer by a roll of poly pipe and fell to the ground, receiving a compound leg fracture.
Summary of hazard
- Hazards associated with unloading rolls of poly pipe are not being adequately assessed. These hazards include:
- instability of poly pipe rolls on release of load binders
- falls from height
- workers in the ‘line-of-fire’
- stored energy – a roll of 110 mm poly-pipe weighs approximately 318 kg, when falling from a height, such as a trailer, the stored energy is significant.
Contributory factors
- Workers required to be on the truck tray and in close proximity to the load in order to release the load binders.
- There was no secondary restraint on the rolls of poly pipe after the release of the load binders.
- The loading and unloading procedure did not consider all of the hazards.
- A risk assessment, such as a job safety analysis (JSA) or similar, was not completed.
- Workers received only limited training in removing unstable loads from a trailer or flatbed truck.
- Site workers are unfamiliar with the task and associated hazards (e.g. in some instances transport company operators normally unload the poly pipe).