At a
new station installation, workers were digging an excavation for the tanks. During the process, old foundations and
basement walls were uncovered, indicating that the soil at the site had been
disturbed on a previous occasion. The work crew broke for lunch--before the
sidewalls had been properly sloped. One of the workers sat on the edge of the
hole to eat his lunch. Within a short time, the excavation partially collapsed
and sent the worker to the bottom of the hole. The worker was not hurt, but the
accident emphasizes the importance of properly trenching and shoring an
excavation and using common sense.
After
unloading a pallet of manholes, the forklift operator returned the forklift to
the warehouse. When he
turned the forklift off, the forks were not lowered completely to the ground.
Another warehouse worker saw that a technician, walking through the warehouse
carrying a box of nozzles, was about to trip over the raised forks and called
out to him to stop. Thanks to his alert co-worker, the technician avoided
injury. The incident could have been prevented if the forklift operator had
lowered the forks on the around and if the technician had checked to be sure
his route through the warehouse was free obstructions.
Two
service technicians responded to a customer call that his unleaded pumps were
not dispensing fuel. It was
determined that the submersible was not running. The technicians backed out the
electrical yoke to disable the submersible pump, but left the breaker on.
During the diagnosis phase, they replaced the leak detector with a temporary
plug. After installing a new submersible capacitor, the two service technicians
began to reassemble the submersible, with one putting the leak detector back in
and the other screwing in the electrical yoke. Meanwhile, a customer pulled up
and turned on one of the dispensers. When the electrical yoke made contact, the
submersible began running. Since the leak detector was not yet fully installed,
fuel began to spill. Neither technician was injured and fuel leakage was
minimal. The power to the submersible should have been shut off, locked out,
and tagged out at the breaker before any work was done, and not turned back on
until the pump was fully reassembled.
In
last month's SafetyLetter, we reported an incident in which a technician
purging a dispensing system used a plastic bucket. The report indicated that the company had switched to
metal containers to reduce the risk of spontaneous ignition. One of our SafetyLetter
readers writes that, in addition to the metal container. a ground must
be established between the can and the dispenser. The reader suggests using
a ground strap with metal clips at either end of a cable. In addition, the
reader noted that the container should be UL approved and the nozzle should be
in contact with the side of the can.
Material
in the SafetyLetter, is
contributed by PEl members from actual accidents with which they are familiar.
You are encouraged to submit accident reports as they occur. Your company will
not be identified in any way.
PEl
encourages comments or recommended solutions for prevention of accidents
reported in this newsletter. Please send your submissions to: PEl, P.O. Box
2380, Tulsa, OK 74101-2380. The methods of prevention described in the
accidents reported in this SafetyLetter represent the opinions of the
PEl members submitting reports. They are intended to serve as reminders to
company employees in an effort to reduce workplace accidents and do not
represent the opinion of the association.