Posted By Hilary Charlton
I heard one of a hopper for chopping metal swarf which was placed on a hillside in a barn type structure from which it was fed.

Obviously it was well guarded with rails etc to stop people from falling in. Unfortunately, one day a hapless sheep walked through the barn doors which had been accidentally left open - the rails which were at the ideal height to prevent people falling in meant that this poor unsuspecting sheep walked straight underneath.

Mutton anyone?

Posted By Karen Todd
I noticed a compactor working with an interlocked door lying open. Upon further examination, I discovered that the switch was broken, but that a wire had been used to bypass it back to the control panel.

I then discovered, when I asked a bit more about the workings of the compactor, that the bin release mechanism was difficult to access and was actually inside the interlocked cage underneath the bin lift mechanism, so what they did was put the bin lift bit up, propped it with a pole, and stood underneath it to undo the bin release mechanism (putting themselves at risk of being killed should the bin lift mechanism fall). This was rectified very simply by moving the bin release mechanism handle about a foot to the left, outside the interlocked cage...

Karen

Posted By Zoe Barnett
One which had me banging my head against the wall:

Once upon a time in the land of far beyond there was a road tunnel which went for about half a mile under the river. This was dual carriageway in either direction and had the attendant requirements for maintenance, traffic management, clearing of accidents and so on.

The King of Far Beyond had to keep his people happy by not spending too much of their taxes, so he only employed one engineer who could supervise this maintenance and all the other work.

The Court health and safety officer asked what happened if something urgent happened whilst this engineer was on holiday or at home. He was told that the engineer was on 24/7 call, 365 days a year. The King was very proud of the fact that he had thought of everything. Why, should the engineer have been at a party no expense would be spared. A taxi would be sent for him, so even if he was too drunk to drive he would still be able to get to the tunnel.

Anyone see the problem here?!

(Rumours that the safety officer was taken to the Tower have not been proved...)

Posted By fats van den raad
Zoe
The King was not unique in his magnificent wisdom. In a previous life I was involved in instrumentation and control maintenance. The company operated a call out system on a "if you're available, come in, if not it'll have to wait untill you are" basis. I was issued with a pager that I carried round with me, even when I went out, as we just installed a new control system and the operators were still getting used to it, and as such, a lot of problems could be solved over the phone.
On this one night, I was out at my local, and found my skin outside at least a gallon of "Best" when the pager went off. I phoned the plant to be told by the supervisor that a machine had tripped out and they could not get it back up and running again, I have to come out. I explained to him my advanced state of embalment and that I could under no circumstances drive in that state. His suggestion was that he would send a taxi to fetch me. Needless to say, I declined his offer.
20 tons of Methyl Chloride, 20 tons of Propylene Oxide and 8 pints of Best Bitter should never be mixed.

Posted By Paul Adams
In a previous life..........
Guards on envelope stuffing machines for DSS have to be bypassed by engineers to make adjustments. Not permitted for operators to do this. Machine works in slow motion with guard up so engineer can observe mechanism and make adjustments.
Engineers are classed as staff and therefore required to wear a shirt and tie.
As they lean over to observe and adust the mechanism in motion............

Posted By Merv Newman
I have a photo which I use in some training courses. Taken in the vehicule repair shop of a mine it shows a mechanic standing on the chassis under the raised tipper bin of a 40 ton lorry. One of the hydraulic cylinders used to raise the tipper bin had to be dismounted so they raised the bin and propped it up with a 6 foot crow bar.

I didn't get a photo of a similar situation : both hydraulic cylinders had to be removed so the back of the bin was lifted on the jaws of a jcb while two men worked underneath. As I walked up the driver saw me and called to the men. They stood back and smiled at me. Then the bin dropped with a crash.

Another shot I do have is of a welder, under a bulldozer, arc welding. His right shoulder is in a puddle of water. His left shoulder is on fire.

Worst one I remember was in a paper mill. After a break a few hundred yards of paper had built up on and around the machine. The machine was not shut down, just put on idle or held on a clutch. Production manager told a worker to get up on (4 metres high)top and clear off the paper. Worker said no it's too dangerous. Production manager decided to do it himself.

While he was up there the clutch slipped (or something) and he was carried through the steam heated rollers. Not killed but multiple injuries.

Worst practice I am desperatly trying to fight nowadays is the lack of lock-out on robotic enclosures. Technicians are convinced that a red card hung on the door will protect them while they are inside.

Discuss

Posted By peter gotch
Heather

A friend of mine a sparky who did his apprenticeship at Ravenscraig. Had his own padlock. Isolated nasty big machine and locked off. Surprised to hear the machine start up. Foreman thought maintenance complete so took hacksaw to padlock.

At conference, with senior HSE person showing off first cut of his new video on how to guard a certain class of machinery. Continued videoing as engineer climbed inside perimeter fencing to carry out maintenance without isolating. Very proud to be able to show engineer being caught in the act.

At large factory to check nothing too seriously out of order before afternoon visit of very very very VIP. Interlocked guards on machine defeated and machine operating with guards open. "You will have those guards closed when VIP comes round" and I will revisit in 1 month to check interlocks reinstated. If not I will prosecute." Senior Company SHE person thought I was being unreasonable and complained to HSE.

At large factory for VIP visit. Fork truck driver shows his skills travelling through assorted mix of VIP, minders, media etc. I have front page of following day's paper in mind as I think "I know this FLT driver has been trained to stop until pedestrians are out of the way - they even have on-site qualified FLT trainers here".

At official opening of exhibition for public by another very very very VIP. VIP goes up staircase that has been declared unfit for public consumption by me and local authority. Thinking of front page of next day's paper again, particularly since very very very VIP due to open Government key institution the following day. Phew. Postscript, institution soon to be relocated in overbudget location. Tony Blair is not going to official opening, to chagrin of lots of VIPs.

Regards, Peter

Posted By John Webster
Operating a water treatment plant in Benghazi which required regular deliveries of concentrated sulphuric acid - used for scale supression. Normally this came by road tanker from Tunis, but for a while the Libyans closed their western border and had to rely on supplies shipped from Italy - in 30 litre black plastic drums.

These arrived in a grossly overloaded dropside truck & trailer, which pulled up alongside the loading bay. The local guys, working for the municipality, would knock out the pins, and the drums would fall off!! Once all un-burst drums had been lined up, it was the job of one of their number to pump out each drum in turn into the storage tank - wearing a tee-shirt, shorts, flip-flops and, of course, rubber gloves (can't be too safe).

Posted By John Allen
While not an example of machinery safety the following near miss came to mind.

When I was an HSE inspector I was called to the site of the demolition of an old jute mill in Dundee. It had been reported that a worker had been seriously injured in a fall from the roof. On arrival at the site I was met by the demolition contractor, the police, and representatives of the site developer including his architect all of whom had been there about half an hour before me. There must have been 8 to 10 of us in total and we all trudged up to the top floor of this building.

The slates, sarking and purlins had all been stripped from the roof leaving only the roof trusses in place, something like a giant toast rack. Except of course for about three of them which had turned over throwing the unfortunate man over the side of the building to the ground below.

When I started to examine the roof it was immediately apparent that the remaining trusses could also overturn at any minute. As in many old buildings they were simply grounded in the top layer of masonry and with most of their weight higher up and all the purlins removed they were extremely unstable. Both the demolition contractor and the architect should have been aware of this as well as me and had had plenty of time to examine the site before I arrived.

I ordered everyone to clear the site and we had only just got into the shelter of the stair well when the remaining trusses overturned. Anyone standing on the top floor would have been killed. Two policemen had remained at ground level and just got out of the way of the falling debris in time.

Not surprisingly a report went to the Fiscal alleging several breaches of the HSWA.

Posted By Merv Newman
Heather,

I've checked my old text books and "squishy bits" in a rubber mill, especially if it is natural rubber, are no problem. Add an extra 5% sulphur. You might need a bit more chalk or china clay to soak up the extra moisture. Maybe 5 to 10 minutes extra on the cure time. Works every time

Merv

Posted By Merv Newman
No worries heather, the sulphur and the extra cure time usually blacken the squishy bits nicely. If anything shows on the spc then run it back through the extruder before wire wrapping. Essentially you have to run the batch through before the HSE inspectors get on site. Quality control will tell you which customers accept this sort of off-spec batch. Otherwise it's an expensive burial with full rites. (how big is your batch size ?)

Merv