18 articles published

A rear dump truck driver has been hospitalised with a spinal injury after the bucket of an excavator collided with the dovetail of the truck.

The impact caused a significant amount of movement to the truck and injury to the operator, who suffered a fracture to the C5 vertebrae which resulted in overnight hospitalisation.

The collision occurred with the excavator on the lower 3.5m high bench as it swung towards the rear dump truck tray, as a change in dig process was implemented by the excavator operators to minimise leaving a roll while double benching.

The change was not found to have any risk-management processes applied and the primary excavator operator was distracted by the change when loading the truck.

The Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) Coal Inspectorate has made  recommendations to prevent similar incidents:

One of the engines in the excavator was found to be down on RPM due to a wire fault, yet the ongoing investigation has not discovered at this time as to whether or not the fault contributed to the accident.

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