Machine ‘Lockout’ Rules Are Being Violated. It’s Killing Workers.

These stories always break my heart. My time in industrial settings was fruit & veg packing and I always felt like it was 3rd world mentality especially when it came to safety. And it came from on high. There would be the usual safety first signs everywhere but when it actually cost them $$ all that went out the window.

Every packing house was different and a couple were outright hostile. One was the worst and I got called in to repair and tune up the weigh section of their sizer. An electrician and I went in and were told they were down for the day so no problem. I told the electrician I was not going to work on that scale unless he locked out the sizer and he agreed as that was protocol for this. I was laying inside the weigh section on a piece of plywood that was 12” wide with chains running above and below me with just enough room to work. I’d just pulled the part out and getting ready to put the new one in when the sizer bumped. I flattened out in terror and then the start horn blew (which is supposed to be blown before anything is turned on) and luckily the electrician who was waiting his turn grabbed me by the ankles and pulled me out on the floor. No start happened but we both looked at the control booth and there was this jerk I’d heard about. The electrician stopped me from going up there and went himself. When he got there his lock was gone and the jerk just stared at him as he unloaded on him. I didn’t go back and flew back out the next day and never went back.
 
C-Bag said:
These stories always break my heart. My time in industrial settings was fruit & veg packing and I always felt like it was 3rd world mentality especially when it came to safety. And it came from on high. There would be the usual safety first signs everywhere but when it actually cost them $$ all that went out the window.

Every packing house was different and a couple were outright hostile. One was the worst and I got called in to repair and tune up the weigh section of their sizer. An electrician and I went in and were told they were down for the day so no problem. I told the electrician I was not going to work on that scale unless he locked out the sizer and he agreed as that was protocol for this. I was laying inside the weigh section on a piece of plywood that was 12” wide with chains running above and below me with just enough room to work. I’d just pulled the part out and getting ready to put the new one in when the sizer bumped. I flattened out in terror and then the start horn blew (which is supposed to be blown before anything is turned on) and luckily the electrician who was waiting his turn grabbed me by the ankles and pulled me out on the floor. No start happened but we both looked at the control booth and there was this jerk I’d heard about. The electrician stopped me from going up there and went himself. When he got there his lock was gone and the jerk just stared at him as he unloaded on him. I didn’t go back and flew back out the next day and never went back.
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I worked in field service the first part of my career, I would have left too. That reminds me of a story from a controls engineer I met while working on a job in Canada. He flew out to a client to work on a machine and when he opened the panel, there were steel bars where fuses should be on the 480v incoming line. He told them he would not work on the machine unless the steel bars were replaced with proper fuses. They refused, he walked out.
 
We always had a strict lock out policy on equipment we worked on. Working on die in the punch presses always made me nervous. There were die blocks that we used to keep the ram open when repairing dies. A couple of times presses were started up with die block left in place. After watching what happened to the three inch diameter aluminum die block when the press closed didn’t instill confidence.
 
1996 I worked for a company who recycled plastics. They had a full size industrial grinder. If the guys feeding the grinder didn’t pay attention and dumped to much into the grinder it would jam and stop. Then guys would have to go in and dig it out. I was inside the grinder with another guy standing on the rotor. From the rotor to the feed conveyor was about 5 feet. We are both inside when we hear the his of the air system and the whine of the motors starting up, we both jumped out. Young athletic. We made it before it started Guy was standing at the control panel. Lock out lock in hand, company used master locks keyed alike. You know because someone might go hone with a key. He said he didn’t know we were inside. Guy that sent us in to the grinder went for lunch didn’t tell anyone else. Quit my job with a punch, never even went back for my coat and stuff in my locker. A year later they nearly killed a guy when a hydraulic ram blew and doused a guy in 400c plastic.

In the summer of 2001 I watch a cat walk lift arm nearly cut a man’s leg off. He was working on the plastic runners for the ram. It was lifted about a meter in the air he had it supported by a stack of timber. While he was working on that end, again an A$$hole in every sense of the word. Unreal how many of these guys are out there. Pulled the door open on the cabinet, defeating the lockout that was in place. Where there’s a way there’s an a hole. Jerk flicked on the breaker and cycled the ram. It rose 10 meters in the air veritcle at an angle then dropped straight down. Crushing the thimber the worker had put in place. When he heard the cylcle start the worker tried to get out of the way he made it mostly, his leg from just above the knee was crushed to half an inch flat. He likely would have been killed outright if the timber had not slowed the ram down.

To this day, I still hear his scream and can see him trapped by the ram when I think about it. The guy that cycled the ram was fired on the spot. Little that did saw him a couple years later working for another company. You do that to someone it should be 10 years in jail or at the very least 10 years unemployed.

Cut a lock or defeat a lockout system should be attempted murder charges, period.
 
DavieJ75 said:
You do that to someone it should be 10 years in jail or at the very least 10 years unemployed.

Cut a lock or defeat a lockout system should be attempted murder charges, period.
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That’s horrible. I agree with the above.

I was close to a couple of very serious injuries and it made me truly phobic about working with many of the guys on the assembly floor. Luckily my two foremen were just as picky about who I worked with so didn’t make me work with them. Too many alcoholics and tweekers. I saw guys fired for stealing but never for causing accidents. Not until we got a real floor manger did they start random drug testing and every time they did they lost several guys and leadmen. When that manger left they stopped testing. I loved the work but hated the cowboy attitude that those of us who cared about safety were sissies. I walked more than a couple of times when things were too sketchy.
 
I have had industrial machines turned on with fatal results during my 911 career. 40 years of memories I don't want....
 
The brewery I worked at was 30+ years old. the drain system had much hot water, caustic, chlorine ran through it, many times at high velocity. Many of the drain lines were cast iron, leading to mortar and block junctions, and were rusted/washed out. One part of my job was control of the sterile cold filter system. In cleaning the system, steam and almost boiling temp water was used. A contracting company had men in the drain system while we were still processing product. As the sterile filter system was in the cleaning process, I was in constant contact with the contractors - who were wanting to get the job done. They had instructions to listen to me when I told them it was safe to be in that section of the drain system. I went to lunch, telling the contractor to not go in the drains. You know what happened. The contractor came in asked someone else if it was good to go in the drains, was told it was ok. The worker got out, with only 2nd degree burns. He was lucky. I was angry at the coworker that told him it was ok, angry at the contractor that was told to only ask me, and angry at the brewing dept head that allowed this to begin with. I went and barged in a managment meeting and went off on the (my) manager that he was going to get someone killed. Don't think he appreciated me dressing him down in front of the plant manager. The worker was very lucky to escape with only 2nd degree burns
 
projectnut said:
Where I worked failure to comply with lockout/tagout procedures was one of the few offences that could get you fired on the spot. In our case ALL employees in the department were required to take lockout/tagout training. Everyone from the department manager to the custodian had to take the course and sign off before they were allowed to start working.
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Yes sir ! I've walked workers out the door . In the OP's post , he stated that the key was left in the lock . He would have been fired also .
 
I don’t want to seem smug, but there are an estimated 13 million Americans working in manufacturing. 85 people a year ain’t terrible.

Obviously every single loss is monumental to the workers family. I’m in total agreement with lockout tagout policies being strictly enforced.

Just comparing this to annual suicides, or car deaths, or people who died of the flu, makes it seem pretty small on the grand scale.

In fact, I’d almost say we should be patting ourselves on the back for keeping twelve point whatever million people from getting themselves killed at work. I’ve got coworkers man. We ain’t no genius level society round these parts. Half of us ain’t even smart enough to know we’re stupid. And that’s a statistical fact, so far as this dummy knows.
 
When I was a kid I worked with a retired electrician at a store, and he had many tales. Keep in mind that this was 30 years ago, and he was already retired, so there was probably a lot less going on for safety. The way he talked, getting "bit" was a part of the job, and described circumstance where you may test for power with the back of your hand, knowing that the current would cause your arm to jerk away. Still don't know whether to believe that one. But all this talk of people innocently removing lockouts reminds me of a story he had about working on a high voltage system from a catwalk. Everything was fine until he got back to the panel and discovered the lockout and tag was removed. Turned out someone else thought it would be funny to remove it and scare him when he got back to the panel! According to this guy he pounded the *&#** out of him on the spot. :)
 
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