Mine safety alert after truck rolls down dump face

The Queensland Coal Inspectorate has issued a safety alert after a haul truck rolled 26.7m down a slope at a mine overburden dump, injuring the driver. The CAT 789 haul truck at the unnamed mine had backed two wheels through a safety berm during a night shift, the safety authority said. After teetering for a brief period at the tip head, the truck rolled side-over-side for two complete revolutions, before finally coming to rest below on its wheels. The driver suffered injuries that required hospitalisation overnight, the inspectorate reported. How did it happen? The industry alert states that the standard of the tip head had deteriorated significantly between the supervisor inspection at the start of the shift and the time of the incident. It had narrowed up, not been maintained in a straight edge, and the berm had reduced in height and width to such an extent that it was no longer at a standard to prevent the truck from breaching the tip head. Inspectors identified other key issues including inadequate lighting, resulting in shadows on the off-driver's side of the truck where the berm was first breached. The alert also states that the height of the dump had exceeded the maximum mine standard. Investigations are ongoing. Recommendations stemming from incident include that all site senior executives should: Review Risk Assessment and SOP for dumping on overburden dumps, minimising the frequency of narrow dumps. Where this can't be achieved, ensure the design and operational parameters are clearly defined in the SHMS. Operators and supervisors must be trained and assessed in their understanding of the SOP.Include a competent geotechnical engineer in the risk assessment team as well the cross section of the workforce involved in the activity.Ensure supervisors, open cut examiners and dump dozer operators have an accurate means of continually checking that advancing dumps are always within their design parameters.Ensure all dump dozer operators are aware of the requirements for maintaining a tip head in a safe state.Ensure the SHMS contains a mechanism to monitor the effectiveness of the Supervisor and Open Cut Examiner inspections, auditing, and reporting on dump design compliance.Review lighting standards at tip head areas. All operators should: Not use the safety berm as a stop for the rear wheels of the truck in dumping operations.Be aware that they have a responsibility to assess the tip head each time they approach it, to ensure it is safe to discharge their load in the normal manner. If not safe, then dump short.Be aware that the extent of the injuries sustained to the coal mine worker, while serious, were limited by the operator wearing their seatbelt. The area where the safety berm was breached.

Mine safety alert after truck rolls down dump face

Industry Queensland

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