Work Stoppage

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Work Stoppage 26 February 2001 Learn from a
Fatal Error
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• Mr Tek Bahadur Gurung
• Died on 16/Feb/2001
• He was just loading some pipes on a truck
• WHY did he die?
• What will YOU learn from his death?

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A foreman and 2 crew were manually loading this
canter truck with 6 m long 6 plastic pipe joints.
To gain space every joint was filled with three 2
inch pipes. This made each section quite heavy
approx 70 kg.
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• Discuss with your teamYour task is to load
  these pipes. A simple job! Isnt it ???
• How would you do this?
• Would you just start and see how it goes?
  Would you think about it first?
• Would you discuss your plan with the team?
• What could be the possible hazards/risk?
  What could go wrong? What if?
• How would you ensure all team members
  understand the hazards and the controls?

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The real questions is Would you a have a
tool-box meeting for what seems to be a simple
and routine task ???? Yes! Good! Make this a
standard practice for every task! Find hazards
BEFORE you start. No!Better think again. You
are putting yourself and your team at risk! See
what went wrong here!
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The foreman was standing in the truck directing
his 2 crew. 7 joints had been loaded.The crew
were adding no 8 from the back of the
truck.What could go wrong here ??
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Too Low !!
Tooclosetotheedge!!
The pipes were forced apart. The last joint
pushed the foreman back. He fell to the ground.
The pipe also. The stopper was too low!!No
one had thought about this hazard.
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He fell flat on his back. His helmet came off.
His head probably hit a stone. He died on the
spot from the head-injury.
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• Discuss with your team
• Now that you know what happened, why did it?
  What were the basic errors made by this team?
• Does your team discuss the possible hazards
  each time you start a simple task?
• What simple tasks does your team do every day?
  Make a short list of them. Do you even think
  about the possible hazards?
• Take one of these tasks and discuss it now try
  and find the hazards. How do you control them?

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• What can you learn from this specific accident
• Check support frames on trucks stoppers must
  be high enough to block the loads.
• Never ever stand on a truck while it is being
  loaded (manually or with a crane). Loads move
  and can push you off or crush you.
• BUT the main thing is
• Before starting any task/job (even simple
  ones!)
• HAVE a Toolbox talk/meeting Find the
  hazards BEFORE they find YOU

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