On Saturday, May 14, 2011, a 37-year old mechanic with 14 years of mining experience and 1½ years of experience as a mechanic, was killed while removing a counter weight fuel tank assembly from a front-end loader. He was positioned beneath the front-end loader when he removed 14 of the 16 mounting bolts that secure the counter weight. When the victim attempted to remove the next to last bolt, the remaining two bolts failed allowing the 11,685 pound counterweight to fall on him. The counter weight had not been blocked to prevent it from falling.
Best Practices
- Install blocking materials before removing mounting bolts from machinery components which can fall during disassembly.
- Follow known safe maintenance procedures.
- Follow the equipment manufacturers recommended maintenance procedures when performing repairs to machinery.
- Train new mechanics in the health and safety aspects and safe work procedures related to their assigned tasks.
Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf).