Vehicle Accidents/Incidents/Near Misses - Petroleum Equipment ...

PEI SafetyLetterfile://F:\E-Bombs\SafetyLetter Archives\Safety Letter April 2008.htmlPage 1 of 34/28/2008Safety SamSays...EncourageSafety!Take time to report anaccident or near miss.PEI encouragescomments orrecommended solutionsfor prevention ofaccidents reported in thisnewsletter.Please send yoursubmissions to:PEI, P.O. Box 2380,Tulsa, OK 74101-2380or submit a report onlinein the MembersOnly/Safety section ofwww.pei.org.A token of appreciationwill be sent to thosecontributing to the PEISafetyLetter.Download a copy ofthe SafetyLettersubmission form.April 2008Vehicle Accidents/Incidents/Near MissesRecently, while at a service station, one of our employees crawledunder the front end of a parked vehicle to check for an oil leak. He leftthe 3/4-ton diesel pickup truck running and did not inform anyone that he wasunder the truck. A few minutes later, the foreman came up to the truck andwalked around it. The vehicle was partially blocking an entrance to thestation so the foreman got in the truck and closed the door with the intentionof moving the truck. Hearing the door close, the employee under the truckmoved to get out of the way just as the vehicle began moving. The left frontwheel passed over his right arm, shoulder, neck and head. The driver, feelinga bump, stopped the vehicle and got out to see what happened. The foremanimmediately began to question the employee and check for injuries. Anambulance was called and company emergency procedures were put intomotion. The employee suffered only a fractured clavicle and a bruised arm.All employees have again been instructed never to be under a vehiclewithout someone standing by who knows where they are, or to remove thekeys and pocket them while working under a vehicle.A driver was hauling a load of dirt to the dump when traffic stoppedsuddenly. To avoid a rear-end collision, the driver swerved and went off theright side of the road, lost control and rolled the truck. The driver sustainedinjuries that may have been avoided if he had been wearing his safety belt.This accident would not have happened if the driver had maintained properbraking distance.One of our construction crews was having trouble starting his pickuptruck. While one crew member was trying to start the truck, the otherworkman wiggled the cable to the positive terminal of the battery to makesure it wasn't loose. Since the ignition was on, a spark generated by the wirebeing wiggled caused the battery to explode, blowing the top off the batteryand spewing acid into the eyes of the crew member. He immediately washedhis eyes and face with water and was taken to the nearest emergency clinic.The quick reaction of the crew avoided a more serious injury. The workmanlater told us that he noticed acid appeared to be leaking from the positiveterminal on the battery.A mechanic was towing a rented air compressor on a busy interstate.Without warning, one of the compressor's wheels came off. It struck anoncoming police car, then eight other vehicles. Although the mechanicbrought the truck and compressor to a safe stop, it was not before severalpeople in oncoming cars had been injured by the compressor wheel. Allmechanics have been instructed to inspect lug nuts and tire wear on alltowed vehicles.A driver was transporting four new MPDs with card readers from theshop to the jobsite. The driver changed his route without checking theoverall height of the vehicle including the dispensers. The driver hit anoverpass clearly marked 11'3". The load was 12'11". Although the impact didnot knock the dispensers off the truck, sections of dispensers could havebeen sheared; falling on other vehicles or the dispensers could have beenknocked completely off the truck. Drivers should know the height of their

PEI SafetyLetterfile://F:\E-Bombs\SafetyLetter Archives\Safety Letter April 2008.htmlPage 2 of 34/28/2008vehicles, including the load, when they are transporting equipment andshould not change their assigned delivery route.Download a PDF of the SafetyLetterThe SafetyLetter for May will focus on dispenser accidents. Ifyou or someone in your company has had an accident or anear-miss involving work on or around a dispenser, let usknow.In June, we'll focus on accidents involving vapors,gasoline spills and/or fires.To fill out report or submit your report online, go tohttp://resource.pei.org/safety_report.asp, or call 888/632-7647 or download a report form by clicking here.Material in the SafetyLetter is contributed by PEI members from actual accidentswith which they are familiar. You are encouraged to submit accident reports asthey occur. Call 1-888-NEAR MISS (1-888-632-7647) Your company will not beidentified in any way.If you have an accident to report, please call PEI at (918) 494-9696 oremail Bob Young at byoung@pei.orgThe methods of prevention described in the accidents reported in this SafetyLetter represent the opinions of the PEI memberssubmitting reports. They are intended to serve as reminders to company employees in an effort to reduce workplace accidentsand do not represent the opinion of the association.This newsletter and other safety resources provided by PEI are intended for use solely by member companies. Permission isgranted to reprint, transmit or redistribute this material for your own use so long as the source is credited to PetroleumEquipment Institute and there is no charge to end users. We request copies of any document based on this material be sharedwith PEI electronically (safety@pei.org ) or by fax (918-491-9895).© Copyright 2008Petroleum Equipment InstituteThis notice isa benefit ofPEImembership.Copyright2007PetroleumEquipmentInstituteThis newsletter is a member benefit of the Petroleum Equipment Institute.To unsubscribe click here or manage all your newsletter subscriptions online at www.pei.org/membersonly