On September 5, 2017, a 20-year old plant operator with 23 weeks of experience was fatally injured at a sand and gravel mine. The victim was performing maintenance on a belt conveyor when he became entangled in the tail pulley.
Best Practices
- Establish policies and procedures for conducting specific tasks on belt conveyors.
- Before beginning any work, ensure that persons assigned to work on belt conveyors are task trained and understand the hazards associated with the work to be performed.
- Do not perform work on a belt conveyor until the power is off, locked, and tagged, and machinery components are blocked against motion.
- Never clean pulleys or idlers manually while belt conveyors are operating.
- Identify hazards around belt conveyor systems, design guarding, and securely install the guarding to ensure miners do not contact moving machine parts.
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