The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) reported that on Feb. 8, a miner at Washington County Aggregates Inc, Washington, Mo., was fatally injured when he became entangled in a fluted tail pulley while attempting to shovel under an adjacent fluted tail pulley.
This is the third fatality reported in 2021, and the second classified as “Powered Haulage.”
MSHA recommends the following best practices to avoid this type of accident:
- Design, install and maintain area guards with signage and locks in addition to the physical barrier.
- Design and maintain secure guards so miners can perform routine maintenance on belt conveyor systems without contacting moving machine parts.
- Do not perform work on a belt conveyor until the power is off, locked out and tagged, and machinery components are blocked against motion.
- Never clean pulleys or idlers manually while belt conveyors are operating.
- Establish policies and procedures for conducting specific tasks on belt conveyors.
- Ensure that people assigned to work on belt conveyors are task trained, understand the associated hazards, and demonstrate safe work procedures before beginning work. Ensure all new miners receive new miner training and task training.