Backhoe Loader Accident

[Irish_Darragh]

hi guys,
just testing the grounds here.... i had a look at one of the threads about accidents and safety issues and some are very interesting and shocking

i was just wondering if anybody here had first hand experience of an accident with a backhoe loader within a construction project?
something that i could look into summarizing and helping me to illustrate the dangers surrounding backhoes into my dissertation...

thanks guys

 

[mudober]

I had a tree come back on me once it took me and my dad about three and a half hours to get it off . Long story short I had to replace the front glass on my hoe and my shorts. Lol

 

[d4c24a]

you may have seen this before ,my guess is the 4 wheel braking was not engaged ,sad loss of life

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/...ger-plunges-50ft-down-cliff-onto-busy-road.do

 

[MTI Mark]

Heres a mining story. Fortunately no one was hurt in this incident.
A miner, using a new loader (called an LHD in the mining world- Load-Haul-Dump) was dumping waste rock over a bluff into an old stope. It is required that there is a rock/dirt berm at all such locations, for obvious reasons. Well apparently the operator (nicknamed Cliffhanger after the incident) misjudged where he was, and drove over the edge. Fortunately the hanging (ceiling) was very low here, probably in the 8 foot range, so that when the front wheels went over the edge, the rear of the scoop hit the hanging, and stopped it from going over the edge. I do not recall how far it was to the bottom, but it was over 100 feet, could have been much more than that. Would have killed the operator for sure. It was an open canopy model LHD and the operator was able to crawl out to safety.
Safety is taken very seriously in mines, especially since MSHA hammers the mines with inspections and fines, more so with incidences like this. Problem is people get comfortable and complacent, even when the company pounds safety into their heads constantly.
In this case the operator had made the same trip so times, he was not paying attention to where he was and thought he still had some distance to go. Imagine his dismay when he realized he was going over, soiled undies I suspect.
This story has a happy ending, he went home to his family at the end of the day, but the outcome could easily have been different.

 

[MTI Mark]

Here is another mining story.
Again no one was injured, or worse.
It is common for mines to have remote operated LHDs (loaders) for mucking out dangerous areas such as longhole shots. Imagine a huge remote controlled tonka toy loader with operable bucket functions, kinda fun to operate.
A longhole shot is where they drill between levels and blast the whole the level out, dropping all the muck down to the lower level. This does not allow the capability of scaling and bolting or screening the hanging (ceiling), thereby making a dangerous situation for miners. Hence the need for remote scoops. The operators remotely drive the scoop into the lower level of the longhole and remove the muck.
On occasion, hanging will fall, sometimes onto the scoops burying the front of the scoop. In one particular incident, a chunk weighing in excess of a couple hundred tons (yes TONS) fell squarely on top of a 4 yard scoop. It jambed the bucket, blew the complete wheel ends right off the axles, smashed the center and rear of the frame, and broke the engine completely in half. The operator (ROPS/FOPS) canopy, was completely intact, although the operator compartment was filled with muck. Quite impressive to say the least.

 

[MTI Mark]

Yet another...
In the mines, sometimes muck from upper levels is dropped down to lower levels through a bore hole or raise. An operator was mucking out a raise, loading haulage trucks. Sometimes the muck cements itself together instead of flowing out of the raise. Safety regulations dictate that should this happen, you set a charge and blast the muck loose, never undercut it with the scoop.
Well.... every job seems to have the guys who want to impress the bosses with more production or whatever the case might be. In this case, it was a newbie who had been properly trained, but thought he could get away with undercutting the raise. He undercut one too many buckets, the muck starts flowing and he has all he can do to jump out of the operators compartment, his foot catching on something, leaving him laying on the ground between the rib (sidewall) and the scoop.
The operators compartments on mining loaders are on the left side as opposed to your typical surface loader where the cab is centered on top facing forward. The reasons being that it alllows for a much lower profile and it allows easy line of site in forward or reverse. Sometimes the opening to enter the operators compartment is in the front near the center joint, sometimes on the rear side of the op compartment. This unit, luckily for the operator was in the rear side, allowing him to jump out away from the muck piling into the compartment. This unit also had a ROPS/FOPS canopy, which is what saved his life. Just so happened there was a large chunk that fell onto canopy and leaned against the rib right over the operator laying on the ground with one foot still caught in the op compartment. What are the chances? Otherwise he would have been completely inundated with muck and smothered.
The operator lost 1 finger, and his hand was smashed up some, but he was fortunate to escape with is life. WHY? Because he wanted to cut corners and be a "superminer". I am sure he had undercut several times before and got away with it.
Goes to show what happens when you cut corners, so next time you think your good to go, nothing is gonna happen, think again, and dont take the chance!

 

[MTI Mark]

One last story, for those of you who are still thinking you can get away with it, nothing is gonna happen....
Even with the fully automated drilling rigs that are available today, some of the smaller mining drifts are still drilled by hand, using an air drill on a leg. Normal cycle procedure for completing a "round" is to drill the round, load it, fire it, scale the hanging, muck it out, scale again, and bolt or screen the hanging, then set up to drill the next round. The hanging is supposed to be scaled (take down all the loose pieces in the ceiling), and bolted (pinned to prevent further "working" of the hanging) right up to the face (where the driller is drilling), to prevent any further pieces from breaking loose from the hanging and causing safety hazards to the driller.
An EXPERIENCED miner was drilling a face, he only half-bolted the hanging, but apparently stopped and started drilling to get his round in for that day... trying to be a "superminer" and impress his bosses with how great he was. He lost a bit in an upper hole, so he got a set of steps and was on them trying to fish the bit out of the hole. As he was fishing, a large chunk of hanging fell from right over him. Bent him over the steps, crushed, and killed him instantly. A young newbie was just around the corner working, and heard the commotion. He ran around the corner and couldnt find his coworker, because he was under the chunk. He called for help.
This guy never made it back home to say goodbye to his wife and children. He went to work that day to do his duty as a "superminer", to impress those around him... by cutting corners and not following protocol, and left the mine in a body bag. For what? The round was not completed that day or probably for several days when MSHA released the site to be reopened, lost production, a lot of paperwork and headaches for the mine personnel, and worse, the loss of a fellow miner, a coworker, a father, a husband, a son. A lot of people hurt because of poor judgement. Imagine being the loader operator who got elected to go in there and lift the chunk of rock off his coworker and friend. Imagine being his supervisor, or the individual who has to go knocking on the door of his house to inform his family that he was killed at work.

These are all stories from the mines, but that doesnt mean that there arent issues everywhere on the surface. Take safety seriously, dont cut corners. Safety rules and regulations are there because of what MIGHT happen. Some rules may seem absurd, but it is that 1 in a millionth time that it was put in place for. Probably anyone who has worked for industrial type companies, has gotten in-depth safety training, but what if you are working for yourself? Or a small company that doesnt have a safety program? Bottom line is that each one of us is responsible for our own safety, AND for anyone working around us. Your number 1 priority for each work day should be that you and everyone around you gets to go home each night when the work day is done.

 

[oriden]

hammering cement with the window open, no eye protection or ear proctection talking on the cell phone

 

[big tex]

This happened to a guy putting in a sewer lateral at a church. Apparantly, he was in a huge hurry and after positioning the JD310 to start digging, he forgot to take the transmission out of drive. The outriggers were down, but the tires were still making contact with the ground. The seat was turned around so he could dig. When he hit the throttle, the back hoe took off like a rocket. He was completely taken by surprise and couldn't react fast enough to stop. The end result was a huge hole in the side of the church and a very shaken up operator, but no injuries to anybody.

 

[Kobe130]

Distracted

Thinking of two accidents where the operators were both killed. One was an open pit mine in the western US. It was reported in Coal Age magazine. Dozer operator was spotted cleaning the inside of rear window of his machine as it was backing up towards the cliff. He just drove right off the cliff and fell about 100 ft. In the other here in Manitoba a crane operator who is said to have loved his job but was 70 years of age just forgot to put one of his outriggers down. He just appears to have forgotten. Maybe distracted by someone? When he went to lift the load the machine toppled and crushed the cab and him. Both very sad and completely avoidable incidents.

 

[Pa Highwayman]

Hi,
I wasn't one the job but I can offer up a tragic story that may help save some ones life in the future, I am going to tell you this story and I will not comment or reply on this because this accident resulted in loss of life!!! The Backhoe was outfitted with a Hoe RAM WHICH IS COMMONLY KNOWN AS A BREAKER. So the operator DID NOT HAVE A SPOTTER WORKING TO KEEP HIM SAFE WHILE BACKING UP. As the operator was working a Laborer pulled up , got out of his pick up and proceeded to walk behind the Backhoe with the BREAKER attachment. The operator looked in his mirrors and did not see the Laborer walking behind him. The laborer was in a Blind Spot from the Operator (now this is an operator with min 25 yrs experience) The Operator proceeded back Tragically ,I think you can imagined what happened.