THE Queensland government has issued a safety bulletin following serious injuries from the uncontrolled release of high-pressure hydraulic fluids.
Recently, there has been one fatal accident and several serious injury incidents in New South Wales (see NSW Department of Primary Industries Safety Alerts SA05-13, SA05-15, SA06-16 and SA06-18).
An employee sustained a hand injury (near miss hydraulic injection) while relieving stored hydraulic pressure through a bleed line adjacent to a longwall chock.
An operator sustained minor injuries when the hydraulic hose for the bucket tilt function burst, allowing pressurised fluid to smash the front windscreen of the front end loader he was operating.
A contractor was fatally injured while taking fluid samples from a large hydraulic system used to power longwall machinery.
The fatal injuries were consistent with hydraulic injection.
Contact:
Bruce McKinnon
Inspector of Mines
07 4967 0866