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The trainee suffered deep lacerations to his left forearm when the face of a stockpile he was loading collapsed and crashed through the front windscreen.
Material from the stockpile, consisting of shale and gravel, partly filled the loader cabin.
Material from the stockpile, approximately 6 metres in height, was being loaded to fill a nearby screen.
The trainee, who was working alone at the time, was loading from the edges of the stockpile at first and then decided to remove material from the vertical face of the stockpile.
After the stockpile collapsed material crashed through the front window, injuring the trainee.
He then rushed to a nearby property approximately 400m away to seek attention and call an ambulance.
After investigation, it was found the trainee had been operating loaders for less than a week and the logbook contained two entries related to operating the loader.
Also there was no supervision at the time of the incident and the production manager was off site at the time of the incident.
An excavator that was used to manage the stockpiles to a workable height was offsite having repairs done at the time of the incident.
“The trainee, although inducted into the mine site, did not understand the hazards associated with stockpiles,” Industry and Investment Mine Safety Operations branch Rob Regan director said.
“The workplace inspection checklist did not include hazards associated with stockpiles.
There was no formal training program in place for trainee plant-operators and emergency procedures failed to work as planned.”
Trainee workers must be supervised at all times until they are deemed competent for the task and stockpile heights need to be managed according to the nature of the stockpile material, Regan said.
“Where the stockpile material is likely to “hang-up”, an excavator or dozer should be used to break-up the stockpile face to ensure it is safe to load,” he said.
“Responsibilities for supervisors or production managers need to be clearly defined and include the supervision of trainees.”
Regan recommended emergency procedures be reviewed regularly to ensure they were appropriate.
“Consider conducting an emergency drill to ensure the emergency response will go to plan.”
