Thread: Angle grinder accident.

Originally Posted by ian

I'd caution against pointing a finger at the fractured 1mm disc.

30 years ago I was involved in a similar incident -- worker on a ladder using an angle grinder to cut steel. The grinder "slipped" and almost severed the workers hand.
The injury required micro surgery and months of rehabilitation.


Can you let us know what Workplace Standards ultimately determine?
My guess it won't be pure "operator error"

In no way do I blame the 1mm disc, I was really only pointing out that these were quality consumables and not cheap chinese sourced rubbish. In hindsight, probably not that relevant overall to the story.
At this point in time the workplace has been given a list of sub standard conditions that must be rectified, some very relevant in my opinion, others not so. There will be a follow up visit/s of course to check on progress.
While any injury is unfortunate, I am not sorry that we were inspected as it has validated several points that I have been trying to drive for several months about the way we do things.
The inspectors seemed quite content, on the surface at least, to attribute this incident to operator error, particularly when shown the other, safer methods that could have been utilised quite easily and also the fact that there were clamps nearby that could have been utilised to hold the work securely.
If viewed as part of a bigger picture, the factors leading to the incident began outside work (stress in personal life) and continued on to pressure the worker placed upon himself to perform due to workload (I stress this did not come from management, and the boss had only just had a conversation with the worker reassuring him that there was plenty of time to complete the task and to slow down), culminating in the adoption of bad habits and risk taking behaviour.
Of particular interest to me was the approach taken by the inspectors. A more textbook good cop, bad cop routine I have yet to see. As far as I am aware, none of the deficiencies identified were deemed to have contributed to the incident.
I hope this will be a point for the business where we learn from the mistakes, clean up our act a bit and move forward in a more productive and safe manner. It will now be a matter of awaiting medical clearances for the worker to return and complete a return to work program. I know he is eager to return, (not half as eager as his partner is for him to get out of the house I gather).

cuts

Originally Posted by Karl Robbers

If viewed as part of a bigger picture, the factors leading to the incident began outside work (stress in personal life) and continued on to pressure the worker placed upon himself to perform due to workload (I stress this did not come from management, and the boss had only just had a conversation with the worker reassuring him that there was plenty of time to complete the task and to slow down), culminating in the adoption of bad habits and risk taking behaviour.

Classic overlooked issues Karl. Short cuts that ignore safety are things to really watch out for especially when there is no pressure to complete tasks within a set time. At the mens shed I was working with a couple of blokes and one repeatedly ribbed the other for stopping and adding an extra clamp to hold a workpiece because it wasted time. Afterwards I had a word with the ribber and reminded him that we are not a production environment and it was always better to be safe than sorry.

Of particular interest to me was the approach taken by the inspectors. A more textbook good cop, bad cop routine I have yet to see. As far as I am aware, none of the deficiencies identified were deemed to have contributed to the incident.

Reminds me of one of first major safety inspections at work.
~60 staff, 100m long 3 storey building about half was office space and the rest was labs and workshops containing some pretty serious stuff (High Voltage, lasers, radiation sources, dangerous chemicals).
The two items found out of order were, a gas bottle not chained down (no excuse) and an out of date burn cream in one of more than a dozen first aid kits. The out of date burn cream scored half a page of text in the report and the gas bottle was 2 lines. They also found the employee training data base was not up to date. The employees had done the training but it was not entered into the data base, that generated about 2 pages of text. We took this as they had to write something to fill up the report.

Originally Posted by Karl Robbers

I would like to share with you all an incident that occurred at my place of work last week.
A worker was using an angle grinder with a 1mm disc to cut 75 x 5mm steel flat bar in order to cap 75 x 50 rhs. After a brief conversation with the boss, the worker restarted the grinder and I heard it start cutting briefly, followed by the familiar sound of a 1mm wheel grabbing and fracturing folowed by the worker's exclaimation of "oh gosh, I just made a really poor life choice and I regret my actions deeply" (not quite the way he put it, but you get the picture). In the time it took me to cover the 10 or so metres to the worker, he had done a fair approximation of a Pro Hart painting on the floor with the claret flowing from the wound on his left hand.
So, what happened?
Firstly, he was using the grinder one handed (yes he has been previously counselled about this), secondly, he was holding the work with his other hand directly in line with the path of the grinder, thirdly it would appear he had been using the 1mm isc as a grinder to deburr the stel already cut, which contributed to the ease of which the wheel fractured.
Upon examination by myself of the grinder after I had photographed the scene, the grinder and the workpiece as well as cleaned up the blood, it was apparent that the grinder had grabbed and the disc had fractured into a more or less square shape which had munched the workers hand very effectively.
What we semed to be a relatively simple case of clean up, stitches and a battle scar turned into surgery (severed tendons etc) and a reportable incident along with at least a six week recovery period.
My workplace received a visit from Workplace Standards the following day. Nobody wants to receive a visit from them after an incident I can assure you.
Be safe people, use two hands and clamp you work down. Respect 1mm discs as they cut flesh really well, particularly when square in shape.
This was total operator error, but how many of us have been guilty of at least one of the factors that led up to the final outcome?

I learnt how angry angle grinders can be at a younger age, i bought a 4 year old smashed car the front end was smashed so was the back left so anyway i was making repairs when i needed to cut out the damaged radiator support to me being unacknowledged as i cut thru the main thick bar at the bottom it was under a lot of tension which i didn't realize and as i was almost thru the steel it grabbed the disc and shattered it pieces going everywhere destroyed the disc but from that day on i have had a lot more respect for angle grinders

the piece i was cutting was under tension and as i made the cut the steel sprung out and grabbed the grinder scary moment it could have forced the grinder strait up my face or anything