4.1: Activities Chapter 6 and 12 - Materials Handling
Reflection-How do you handle materials?
What is your experience with manual material handling? What training or guidance has your employer provided if any? Search on methods for correct lifting techniques for manual material handling and compare to your training. Share similarities and differences.
Flash Cards: Key Terms and Definitions
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Standard Mapping-Hierarchy of Controls
Engineering and Work Practice Controls for Rigging Safety
Standards to reference, but there may be others!
1926 Subpart H
Rigging equipment for Material Handling
Definition: Rigging is the proper and safe securing of loads for handling, movement, by material handling equipment such as cranes and hoists.
Activity: Understanding the difference!
Cite rigging regulations that prevent or mitigate the lifting hazards below and identify them as elimination, substitution, engineering or work practice controls:
Lifting Hazards
- Unsecure Loads
- Damaged equipment
- Heavy Loads
- Abnormal or heavy wear of slings
- Irregular shaped loads
- Ground activity
- Unqualified riggers
Case Study
In your discussion group, identify all forklift operator errors that contributed to the worker fatality in the case below. What and where were the potential struck by and caught in hazards? Recognizing hindsight is 20/20, what procedural failures do you recognize from the seven common accident causes list in chapter 1? Provide one recommendation that could prevent a similar incident.
New Jersey FACE 96-NJ-062
On April 26, 1996, a 25-year-old warehouse checker was critically injured after being crushed under a crate falling from a forklift truck. The incident occurred in a large warehouse as the victim was assisting a forklift operator in loading a 3,900 pound crate of plate glass onto a trailer. The crate, which measured 84 inches long by 71 inches high by 16 inches wide, was loosely set on the forks and leaning against the mast of the forklift. The victim stood to the side of the crate as the forklift drove towards the trailer and then stepped in front of the crate as it entered the truck. When the forklift passed over the docking plate, the unsecured crate was jostled and fell onto the victim. The victim was severely injured and died the next day.
Investigation Details
The incident occurred on Friday, April 26 in the export section of the warehouse. At about 4:30 p.m., a forklift operator was instructed by his foreman to load a trailer that was parked at the loading dock. As with all the forklift operators at the facility, the operator was a trained and certified driver who was assigned the same machine each day. He drove his 8,800 pound sit-down rider forklift (lifting capacity 5,000 pounds) to a large crate of plate glass that was leaning against a pole in the warehouse. The crate was unusually heavy for its size, weighing about 3,900 pounds and measuring 84 inches long by 71 inches high by 16 inches wide. The operator positioned his forklift under the crate (which was built to be moved on its narrow side) and moved it to the staging area. The forklift operator then packed foam around the crate to cushion it during shipping and raised the crate back up on the forks. Although the crate was leaning against the mast of the lift, it was unstable and moved back and forth slightly. At this time the forklift operator saw the victim walking by and asked for his help.
The victim had arrived for work at 5:00 p.m., coming in early so he could work some overtime before his usual shift started at seven. He had not yet been assigned to checking when the forklift operator asked him to help stabilize the crate on the lift. With the victim walking on the left side of the lift, the crate was moved to within 30 feet of the loading dock. The operator continued to move the lift very slowly until he was about 15 feet from the trailer, at which time the victim moved in front of the forklift. They continued until they were about five feet from the trailer when the forklift operator stopped the lift. He could not see the victim and asked if he was OK, to which he replied that he was “good, come on.” The operator again started to move the lift slowly towards a portable docking plate that bridged the gap between the dock and trailer.
The forklift operator did not see the victim as the lift went down the dip created by the docking plate. This dip was enough to destabilize the crate, which fell forward off the lift and onto the victim. The operator immediately yelled for help and was assisted by several other employees who unsuccessfully tried to lift the crate off of the victim’s chest. They quickly moved a forklift into place and raised a corner of the crate, creating enough room to pull out the victim. At this time the victim was alert and was heard joking with the rescuers. The police and EMS arrived and transported the victim to the local trauma center where he was admitted to the intensive care unit with severe crushing injuries. He died of his injuries the next day at 6:23 p.m., almost 24 hours after the incident.
The victim was a 25-year-old male warehouse checker who had worked for the company for five years. He was hired as a “legman”, a laborer who unloaded shipping containers. He was promoted to forklift operator after passing the certification program. He was later promoted to checker and was responsible for verifying the condition and contents of the shipping containers. It was noted that the victim had been trained and retrained on forklift operations on three separate occasions.
Reflection Aerial Lifts vs Personnel Lifts?
Conduct a search on Aerial Lift, Personnel Hoist, Personnel Lift. Describe what you find either by copy and paste of pictures or written descriptions of equipment. What are your observations? Why do you believe they (Aerial Lifts) are associated with cranes?
Flash Cards: Key Terms and Definitions
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Case Study
In your discussion group, identify the crane operator errors and the rigger/rigging errors. Which competent person do you believe was most at fault or bore the most responsibility? Why? Which type of hazard resulted in the worker death, "struck by" or "caught in between/crushed by? In your opinion, what other contributing causes or safety issues are revealed in the summary?
Summary
In the summer of 2009, a 48-year-old male commercial roofer, working on a roof, died when a load of shrink-wrapped roofing material, weighing approximately 1,900 pounds fell 20-30 feet from a 40-inch by 50-inch wooden pallet being transported overhead by a tower crane. The decedent’s supervisor, who was the roof man (signal person) for the lift, was working in another area of the roof clearing space for the pallet of rolled roofing material to be placed. The rigger placed a ratchet strap around the roofing bundle, and then “basket-rigged” the wooden pallet with two slings, both of which were 28-foot long, 2-inch wide polyester slings. The slings were connected to a ½-inch by 19-foot 2-inch leg spreader equipped with 10-inch hooks and a master ring that was connected to the crane’s hook. The slings were placed through the fork lift sleeves of the pallet. The rolls of roofing material were not secured to the pallet. The rigger indicated the load was ready to be hoisted to the roof. As the rigger observed the load being raised, he did not note any load instability or imbalance. The crane operator lifted the load approximately 20-30 feet above roof level, and then began to transport the load to the placement area. This involved swinging the load over the area where the decedent and his coworkers had been assigned to work by the supervisor. The crane operator noticed the roofing rolls were beginning to fall from the pallet. The crane operator yelled out a warning to the workers. The rolls of roofing material fell from the pallet and struck the decedent. The coworkers called for emergency response, unhooked the ratchet strap, and removed the roofing materials from the decedent. Emergency response provided care, and the decedent was transported to a local hospital where he was declared dead.