MOL REPORT- to the Eastern Safety Group, Feb 11/10
Item List:
1. Mining Drill Entanglement- Recent Injury History
2. Recent Incident
3. MLRC on Working Alone Issue
1. An Unofficial Listing of Mining Drill Entanglements
- A compilation of Critical and Fatal injuries from Drilling in Ontario Mining.
- Descriptions are purposely brief for purposes of a simple tally.
- Most of these incidents do not involve diamond drills
As of Dec 31/2009:
Drill Entanglement Fatalities
-None in last 15 years
Drill Related Fatalities
-W Howden, Aug ’07, Quarry, Worker struck by hydraulic cylinder from his Air Trac
-R Campeau, May ’06, UG, removing an electric winch on a shaft jumbo
-P Ross, July ’02, UG, contract driller struck by wrench slipping from ITH
-R Lamirande, Apr ’02, UG, pinned by boom of a mechanized rock-bolter
-R Courschene, Apr ’96, UG, Crushed between boom & controls of a mechanical Bolter
Drill Entanglement Criticals
- None recorded as Hot Issues in the last 5 years
Drill Related Criticals
- Aug 25/09 – UG - Worker was drilling when struck by rock burst, found unconscious
- Mar 10/08 NN Ont UG - 2 workers in process of bolting walls when a piece of rock, approx. 500 lbs., blew off face, landing on worker, both legs broken
- Apr 14/08N. Ont Open Pit - Worker was drilling and while cleaning/adding steel to machine, piece of steel came out and struck his right arm
- June 13/08 N. Ont. UG - driller stood on jumbo boom to reach back, fell 6 ft broken arm
- Nov 24/08 – NN Ont. UG - worker drilling with jumbo was hit by a rockburst and ejected from jumbo – he lost consciousness and received lacerations to head
- Mar 04/07 – N.ONT.UG - worker bolting the back with a stoper, a small piece of
loose rock fell from back, struck worker, fractured forearm, sent to hospital
- Jan 30/06 – N.ONT. UG – bolting, loose fell with steel in chunk, jackleg drill broke arm
- MAY 23/06 – UG – N.ONT - worker was drilling, steel jammed in a hole and worker let go of drill, as machine rotated, hose caught foot and twisted it around stopper
- SEP 21/06 – S.ONT QUARRY – double critical - drill rig - sudden, unexpected movement of machinery and tool- Wrench struck two workers.
- Dec 2/05 – NW Ont. - two drillers were in the process of bolting and screening in the back of the main ramp. both workers at the time were drilling. the iw had finished drilling the hole and he was waiting for his co-worker to complete his drilling so that they could install the screen when it is believed that he took his drill, with a four-foot steel inserted, to collar a second hole when a piece of loose (approx 3 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 8 inches thick) came down and struck the drill steel which caused him to release the drill. the machine came down on the guard rail on the scissor lift which pivoted the drill. the leg part of the drill struck the worker in the right forearm, dislocated elbow, broken forearm.
- Aug 2/05 – Sudbury, bolting from scissor truck, piece of loose hit stoper, catapulting it and worker to the ground, injuries to leg, shoulder and head
Conclusions From Above Data
- drill booms are dangerous
- bolting with jacklegs & stopers is dangerous due to loose & seismicity [many other manual bolting injuries are noted in this time span where drilling was not explicitly identified]
2. Recent Incident:
Jan 15/10 near Folyet
Caller reports worker being caught in drill rods
3. MLRC Interest on Working Alone Issue
Date: Sep 24/09
Location: Teleconference
Present: Dave Cousins (St Mary’s), Tim Maloney (Vale Inco), Jerry Walsh (USW 2492)
Dan Murphy (Xstrata Nickel)
Chair: Gerald Allan
MLRC Mandate: [June ’08 MLRC mtg]
- Address needs for mining plants
- Address need of communications for working alone in plants
- Define “working alone” in the surface context
- Address response times for workers injured while working alone
- Determine what is required for worker safety
Attachment Materials:
- MLRC Minutes excerpt Feb 2008
- MLRC Minutes excerpt June 2008
- Masha Alert 2003
- Example of Commercially Available Technology (Safety Trak)
- Surface Fatalities & Working Alone Data for Last 10 Years
- Proposal for Regulation Change From MOL Provincial Program Advisory Committee
- Wording of RS 16 Mining Regs and RS 17 Construction Regs
- Sent later- CUPE recommendations for working alone
- Sent later – relevant Coroner’s Inquest Recommendations (Poloquin, Greco, Blanchette, Lamirande, Macloud, Nesbitt)
Introductory Remarks:
- Working by one’s self is common in both surface and underground mining. 35% of Surface fatalities have occurred while working by one’s self. Past data indicates about 23- 25% of underground fatalities involved working by one’s self.
- The Mining Regs section 16 have provisions for working alone that include a definition, conditions and call-in requirements. These were instituted in 1997 due to a conveyor fatality in 1991. These provisions appear valued.
- There are Coroner’s Jury recommendations calling for pagers or touch-activated calls for assistance, as well as 2 way communication in heavy vehicles in surface mines.
- There is economical commercially available equipment that can assist workers that are alone, such as cell phones, walkie-talkies with man-down signals, and PASS (personal alarm security systems)systems (ie for the old and infirm) which do calls for assistance.
[Discussion Items not included for sake of brevity]
Conclusions:
- The issues around working alone, and ways to address them, are inter-twined with Emergency Preparedness
- Access to or carrying of communication devices are an essential ingredient in both working alone and emergency preparedness issues
- We do not want to recommend overlapping and conflicting requirements for both working alone and emergency preparedness, it appears that dealing with emergency preparedness is a broader issue that can deal with working alone concerns
- We still need a definition of working alone, however, as is defined in RS 16, we should not be considered to be working alone if we have 2 way communication
- GRA should discuss these concerns with OMCSA (Ontario Mine Contractors Association), OSSGA (Ontario Stone Sand & Gravel Association), report to MLRC