The truck driver received serious spinal and pelvic fractures when he was crushed by steel mesh being unloaded from his truck by a telehandler-forklift in December 2011.

The driver was delivering a load of steel mesh to be used as roof support underground at the mine.

At the time, the Tasman mine was receiving regular supplies of materials to be used in supporting the mine roadways as it developed. One of those materials was the steel mesh bundles delivered by General Carrying Pty Ltd.

When the driver arrived at the mine there were no prior arrangements for dealing with the delivery. Staff on the surface of the mine sought to identify a person who could unload the truck.

A mine deputy, who had been assigned to light duties, was working on the surface of the mine.

The mine deputy undertook to unload the truck using the mine’s telehandler, which is a multi-purpose materials handling machine.

The mine deputy was not the normal operator of the telehandler, and had not been involved in either the yard work or the surface attendant role before.

The mine deputy had not unloaded roof mesh before and had not been given an authorisation by the mine operator to operate the telehandler machine.

“It is noted that the truck driver and the mine deputy discussed how to unload the mesh as neither had undertaken the task before,” the Mine Safety Unit report states.

“There appears to have been some uncertainty as to how many packs of mesh could be lifted in one go.”

The mine deputy began unloading the bundles of mesh assisted by the truck driver.

The first attempt to lift four bundles in one load resulted in an overload alarm sounding on the telehandler. The mine deputy realised the telehandler was overloaded, stopped the lift, and then continued to unload two bundles at a time.

The men reported there were some difficulties getting the telehandler tines between the bundles of mesh because of their manner of loading, and the orientation of the truck.

Work continued two bundles at a time, leaving the remaining stack of three bundles at the front section of the truck tray.

The remaining three bundles were then lifted in one load.

The mine deputy said he had difficulty with the load suspended above the truck tray, and that the amber load alarm light was indicating.

At that time the truck driver was picking up tie down straps, and appears to have moved along the truck tray entering the zone between it and the forklift and truck tray as the forklift was reversing.

As the forklift moved away, the mesh shifted on the steel forks and the top two bundles slid forward. The movement of the top two bundles of mesh crushed the truck driver against the truck tyre and tray.

He was severely injured and transported to John Hunter Hospital by road ambulance.

“The serious nature of this incident is combined with the frequency with which this type of activity occurs at all mine operations,” the report states.

“The potential exposure to this type of hazard is high, so the Investigation Unit recommends that there be layers of effective controls in place.”

A crucial point to emerge from the investigation is an understanding of where the centre of the load is and the effect this has on the optimum weight that may be lifted.

“The overall dimensions of the bundles of mesh meant that the effective centre of the load was 0.125 metres past the centre of the forks,” the report states.

“This reduced the effective lifting capacity of the load from 4 tonne to 3 tonne, meaning that the three bundles of mesh being lifted were at the outer limit or beyond the rated capacity of the machine.”