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Thread: Angle grinder accident.
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30th Oct 2016, 12:31 PM #16Most Valued Member
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- Sep 2010
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- Lebrina
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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).
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30th Oct 2016, 02:24 PM #17Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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- Feb 2006
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- Perth
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- 7,189
cuts 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.
~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.
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1st Nov 2016, 03:11 PM #18Most Valued Member
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- Aug 2009
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- Sydney, NSW, Australia
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- 1,844
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
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