 Mine safety in the United States has improved dramatically over the last several decades. Fatal accidents and serious injuries have decreased. Record low fatality totals and injury rates have been reported for three consecutive years. However, much work on accident prevention is still yet to be done. One method of prevention is to examine the type of accidents which are occurring. The 17 accidents which are highlighted in this video represent the majority of those kinds of mishaps that occurred in the metal non-metal sector during 2003. These accidents fall into four categories, those involving crushers, falls, hoisting, and haulage. MSHA encourages mine operators, supervisors, and especially miners to take a closer look at the hazards that may be present at the worksite. They may not be readily apparent or obvious, so think about how your work should be done in the safest way possible. The job of working safely is a team effort, not just an individual task. Everyone should have their focus on safety and how to avoid hazards that cause accidents. Remember, our goal is to send each and every minor home healthy and safe after each shift, and we need your help to make that possible. What could happen? Effective risk assessment. Well, what happened today, Wilbert? Made a squeaky noise and just all of a sudden it stopped. Okay, go get Jimmy. Okay. And you guys come back, work on it and see what you can do to get us up and running again, alright? Okay. Okay, and be careful. What could happen? What could happen? A 44-year-old supervisor was assisting with preparing the jaw crusher to remove a shim plate. He was positioned on the conveyor underneath the crusher while two coworkers removed the nuts holding the toggle block clamp bolts. When the nuts were removed, the shim toggle block rest fell and struck him. What could happen? A 57-year-old oiler was observed standing on a narrow platform installed over the opening of the jaw crusher that was still moving. He was attempting to free a hang-up when he apparently contacted the moving crusher components causing multiple fractures to his leg. The victim was hospitalized and later died of his injuries. That's a good question. What could happen? A 25-year-old repair crew foreman was positioning a wedge bar to secure the upper liner plate in a stationary jaw crusher. Apparently, the liner shifted and fell, striking the victim. A 44-year-old company vice president was using a steel bar to dislodge a blockage in an impact crusher. The bar contacted a moving crusher component causing the bar to be propelled and strike the victim's neck. Hey guys, hold up. Before you start, I want you to lock and tag out the power. I want you to securely block any parts before you start to loosen any bolts. And I want you to make sure everybody's away from this thing before you start it up, okay? All right, and if you need any help, I want you to call down to the shop. Just call down there. Effective risk assessment. Run! I marked three rollers that had bad bearings. Two others are worn almost completely in half, okay? You're going to need to get somebody to help you carry them up the catwalk. Once you get them changed out, I want you to start the belt and check the rollers to see if there are any bad ones that I missed. Okay, I'll call Carline and have her meet me at the warehouse. We'll get a half a dozen to take back with us and make some trips back to the warehouse. Good man. Let me know when you're done. Now what could happen? A 62-year-old supervisor was standing nine feet above ground level at an opening. The victim was leaning on the top chain handrail that was installed across the opening. Apparently, as the victim exerted outward pressure against the chain, the chain link slipped off the grab hook, causing him to fall to a concrete pad. What could happen? A 37-year-old supervisor and a coworker were repositioning a water discharge line. The victim stepped on a metal air shaft enclosure. The metal had deteriorated and it failed, causing the victim to fall 143 feet to the second level. A 40-year-old maintenance man was tracking a water line, walked out onto the roof of a building and fell through a skylight 29 feet to a concrete floor. I'll meet Carline back at the warehouse and we'll get the stuff off his head and back this way. Start, I want you to do a couple of things. Go get your harness and your lanyard. I want you tied off before you start changing out those rollers. If you're going to get Carline to help you, get her a harness too. Now I want you to lock and tag off the conveyor breaker before you even start up the catwalk. Relax boss, I've already told the pit boss to get Carline a harness. I've already locked out and tagged out the conveyor. Good man. You know, I just started thinking about these things and I wanted to come back. Effective Risk Assessment Sandra, you go ahead and start to take up some of the slack and I'll check to see if it's going to catch. Where are you going Raymond? We're starting to spin. Well, you never get close to a suspended load. Too many things can happen and all of them are bad. Oh, what could happen? A 46-year-old supervisor was killed while a crane was lifting steel plates that were to be used as conveyor belt take-up weights. The victim was positioning the plates with the rigging field and the plates crushed him. What could happen? A 51-year-old master welder was fabricating a screen tower section. Using an overhead bridge crane, he was positioning the three beam right side component for assembly. While the victim was standing on the bottom beam, communicating with the crane operator and positioning a chain sling, the load shifted and fell, crushing him. Now, what could happen? A 51-year-old truck driver maintenance worker was steadying a section of a conveyor as it was being placed on the ground by a rubber-tired crane. The boom of the crane struck a 7,200-volt energized overhead power line, delivering a fatal electrical shock to the worker. A 39-year-old over-the-road tire technician was using a truck-mounted tire handling crane to place two tires in an upright position against the front tire of a 50-ton haul truck. As he moved the second tire into position, his slip from the gripping pads struck the ground and pinned him against the crane truck. A 45-year-old superintendent was operating a crane to lift a hydraulic power pack that was positioned on the bank of a settling pond. The outrigger pads were not fully extended at the time of the lift. When the power station was raised and swung towards the left, the crane tipped over on the ground, pinning him inside the cab. Sandra, come on down. Raymond, come on over here. I need to talk to you. We're going to have a safety meeting right now. Way too many accidents involving these trains. Hey, supervisors have been involved in this too. That's a good point. That's a good point. This is why I wanted to get us together and talk about this, okay? Now, there's no overhead power lines, so we don't have to worry about that. Hey, Raymond, if you ever need to stabilize a load, get a tagline, a long one, long enough so it'll keep you away from that load, okay? Sandra, you double-check the crane's load charts, okay? And then recheck the rigging after you put some tension on it before you start to lift it, all right? Effective risk assessment. Hey, Willie, shop's done with that gearbox for the conveyor. I need to take the inloader, go over there and pick it up. Somebody down there will follow you down to show you where to put it. Okay, I'm just coming out to pit, and I saw a water line break on the ramp, and it looked like it might take two or three hours to fix. Yeah, I heard about that. Well, what do you think about that waste ramp where they set the drill up there? Yeah, that might work. It's a little narrow, though. Yeah, it's a little narrow, and it burns not quite high enough for a dude's haulage on it right now, but I think the load will do pretty good. Okay, you say so. I haven't been over there in a week or so, so just be careful, okay? Thanks, Walt. What could happen? A 39-year-old equipment operator was operating an excavator near the edge of an embankment in the pit. The ground under the excavator failed, causing it to slide down the embankment and fall onto its side, crushing the victim inside the cab. A 20-year-old laborer was fatally injured at a surface-dimension sandstone mine. The victim was operating a forklift when he lost control and overturned while traveling on a mine roadway. A 55-year-old dredge operator exited a control booth located adjacent to a dump hopper and walked down the hopper ramp. At the same time, a front-end loader operator dumped a load at the hopper back down the ramp and struck the victim. I hope you haven't started yet. A 39-year-old laborer operator was using a forklift near the edge of a dredge pond to relocate the dredge's high-voltage cable. He drowned when the embankment sloughed off, causing the forklift to tip into the pond. A 22-year-old equipment operator was following a front-end loader in his personal pickup truck on a single-lane mine road. The front-end loader stopped and reversed, backing over the pickup, fatally injuring the driver. Willie, come down. I need to talk to you. I want you to hold up. I need to talk to Willie about a couple of things here before he takes this down here. And make sure you get somebody to help you lift that. That thing's too heavy for you to lift by yourself. Willie, a few things I want you to check before you go down. First, I want you to make sure that even before you start out of here, make sure you walk around the loader, make sure everybody's clear of this thing before you start moving. To be effective, risk assessment has to be more than just determining what hazards are usually associated with the job. It must also include any potential hazards. Don't discount a hazard simply because the odds of it occurring are fairly long. As these 17 fatalities have shown, it's not always the obvious hazard, but the unforeseen ones that can be fatal. Whether scheduling the day's normal work or planning for a job that you don't often perform, look for the hazards that may be less likely to happen. Train your employees to recognize all the hazards associated with the tasks they are performing. By looking outside the box, you may observe a hidden hazard and prevent an accident. Try to imagine the worst situation that could happen and take proactive measures to address it. Like the man said, what could happen? This video was produced through the joint efforts of the NSSGA-IMSHA Alliance.