What happened: RWC TONGS STRIKE FLOORHAND Prior to pulling drill pipe out of the hole, rig and lay d

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Shell EPW Wells HSE Early Learning Bulletin
Fountain No 133545 Location Rockies
Date 06/09/2007 Risk Ranking Actual
Level 2 People, Potential C3 Medium People
What happened RWC TONGS STRIKE FLOORHAND
Prior to pulling drill pipe out of the hole, rig
and lay down crews held a pre-job JSA review
meeting. After breaking out the second joint
from the string, the driller mistakenly engaged
the breakout tong lever instead of the drum
clutch lever. This caused the breakout tongs to
be pulled inward toward the draw works, striking
a floorhand and causing him to fall backwards
into rig draw works and against a stored IBOP
valve. The injured floorhand was treated for
bruised ribs and released to light duty.

• Learning points
• Recent crew turnover resulted in new to rig
  crew members who were not familiar with rig set
  up or teammates.
• SSE (short service employee) Driller had 22 years
  in industry, 12 years in position and 2 months
  with Nabors. However, he he had not operated this
  type of compound rig in the past 20 years.
• Driller stated he did not look to verify which
  control handle he was operating prior to
  clutching the lever.
• Draw works console handles were all the same
  design, and therefore not discernable by feel.
• Stop the Job was not initiated, even though
  several crewmembers felt uncomfortable.

Re-enactment
Re-enactment
Tongs that struck employee
IBOP Valve employee fell against
Drilling Console
This Learning Bulletin provides preliminary
learnings a detailed investigation is pending.