Oven Death - Partial Verdict

[binky]

problem with this sort of stuff is that the deigner could probably not envisage anyone ever going into the oven 'live' - who would be so daft! consequently this never featured in his safety design. When i worked in a certain factory a young lad got his hand crushed in a 6 ton press. Now the press was protected by a 'safety beam curtain' which had been modified to trigger the press to operate as you pulled out your hands. So process was insert metal blank, pull back, press operates, hands in to remove part. Now the guy who designed the set-up didn't quite fully conform with standards and left the beams about 10mm too high. One day a piece of metal jammed in the press which ejected parts through the bottom of the jig, so as the young lad ducked down to clear the jam it triggered the press. Unfortunately he had his hand in the press and as he ducked down his wrist/ forearm bent down with him just enough to clear the bottom beam and trigger the press - his hand was crushed. Now the guy who installed the controls was basically an untrained shop floor supervisor promoted to 'manufacturing engineer' ie firkin unqualified for the work, and hadn't quite complied with regs because he didn't know any better. The principle of using the safety curtain as the trigger was perfectly acceptable and had been successfully implemented on numerous other larger presses with absolutely no problems. I have to say i felt sorry for both of them, the company liked promoting the untrained to 'engineer status' and I don't think anyone could have forseen the circumstances whereby the young lad would have his hand in the press and duck down. But failure to fully comply with standards, even by 10mm meant that this was a totally avoidable accident and should never had happened.

 

[OnOff]

One company I worked for, we used to do our Risk Assessments on our first visit and as a prelude to any written inspection report there was a whole chunk of "Mind Your Head sign required", "Trip Hazard on entering plant room", "Fire Exit route not clear" etc. Yes we were being diligent but not without an ulterior motive.

The then governor would put in a price to do all this sort of stuff. Seemingly cheap per item but it didn't half add up. Many a day I'd spend an hour or two re-fitting a motor then the next 6 applying hazard tape to steps and self adhesive signs everywhere. Right down to fitting extra fire exit signs. He must have made a fortune. One frequent thing we would do was drill and fix a rigid sign on a chain and hook to doors as said above. One side would have something like "On Accessing Roof Turn This Sign Around" on the other "Caution Men Working On Roof". 

It was always put to the client that there was the RA and if they wanted they could get A N Other to do it. 99% of the time they gave us the order. A win/win really for everybody, we got the revenue and the place was genuinely made safer. It was dead easy work too.

 

[Evans Electric]

surely somthing like the supply would have a isolator padlocked off or a warning message on door of oven MAN WORKING INSIDE DO NOT TURN OVEN ON or something simple like that.

That doesn't work with humans Badge ,   if you put up a sign saying "Wet Paint"   everyone touches it to see for themselves . 

If you put "Do not Enter"     someone will go inside to see why .  

As an apprentice , we were waiting for a part to arrive for an electric fork truck which would only go in reverse .     The sparks put a sign on it  saying " Truck out of order will only reverse  "  I think everyone in the place had to get on it to try it .......it ended up about four hundred yards away.

Human nature is a strange thing , Dead Men's Handles have been wedged in position .       I was asked once to rig the limit switches on the guard of a power press so they could get an order stamped out quicker .

There comes a time when someone has to step up to the line and get stuff sorted TBH   ...... a contractor I worked for had one van for getting stuff out to the jobs ......I took it out once to find the brake pedal would hit the floor and rapid pumping was required to slowly stop the damn thing. 

Still wasn't fixed after a month so someone  told the gaffer there'd been a crash , Sparks & apprenti in intensive care  & would he phone their familys.

Van went in the next day.