On July 9, 2020, a mine superintendent was electrocuted while attempting to reverse the polarity of a 4,160 VAC circuit by switching the leads inside an energized 4,160 VAC enclosure that contained a vacuum circuit breaker and disconnect.
Best Practices:
Additional Information:
This is the 11th fatality reported in 2020, and the first classified as “electrical.”
Click here for: Preliminary Report (pdf), Final Report (pdf).
On June 19, 2020, a miner died while inspecting a stockpile for oversized material. As the victim walked along the toe of the stockpile, a portion of the stockpile collapsed, covering him with approximately four feet of material.
Best Practices:
Additional Information:
This is the 10th fatality reported in 2020, and the first classified as “Falling, Rolling, or Sliding Rock or Material of Any Kind.”
Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), Final Report (pdf).
On June 13, 2020, a dragline was found submerged in 25 feet of water where a miner had been using it to remove material from a pond. Divers attempted to locate the dragline operator, and after two days the dragline was extricated from the pond. The victim was recovered from the engine compartment behind the operator’s cab.
Best Practices:
Additional Information:
This is the ninth fatality reported in 2020, and the second classified as “Machinery”
Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), Final Report (pdf).
With so much false information going around and the politicization of mask wearing there are facts as best we know them at reliable sources like the CDC. The current bottom line is we accomplished much by protecting our communities but our work is not nearly over.
If you want to review some scholarly work on this you can check out Characteristics of Adult Outpatients and Inpatients with COVID-19 — 11 Academic Medical Centers, United States, March–May 2020 (pdf). Or like me you just might enjoy the tables of information the study provides,
MSHA issued 92 imminent danger orders for people working at heights without fall protection between January 2019 and June 2020. The most common violations were truck drivers climbing atop their vehicles, and maintenance and quarry personnel climbing to or working without fall protection in high places. Supervisors have been ordered down from dangerous locations.
Deaths from falls have increased from 8% to 19% of mining fatalities in the last two years.
OSHA has a guide available for employers or employees to assist them in assessing the workplace and instituting the appropriate controls to make the return safe. It “focuses on the need for employers to develop and implement strategies for basic hygiene (e.g., hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfection), social distancing, identification and isolation of sick employees, workplace controls and flexibilities, and employee training.”
Many areas have done a poor job of opening up, either reducing controls before evidence indicated or failing to continue with controls like physical distancing or the wearing of face masks which should continue until a vaccine is available and widely administered. Remember, under OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements, COVID-19 is a recordable illness, and employers are responsible for recording cases of COVID-19 that have evidence of being contracted at work.
The National Fire Protection Association has its usual warnings and safety materials available here this year, but they are even more relevant this year. The public display in my town and many others are canceled which may motivate even more people to create their own. The usual gang of fools in the emergency room each year is bad enough, but with extra precautions and in some case extra burdens on emergency and healthcare professionals just isn’t needed.
Find a great video and printable materials here.
On June 1, 2020, a contract truck driver died after falling from the top of his trailer. The victim received first aid/CPR at the scene and passed away after being transported to a local hospital.
Best Practices:
Additional Information:
This is the 8th fatality reported in 2020, and the third classified as “Slip or Fall of Person.”
Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), Final Report (pdf).