Question: A worker at a sawmill was doing routine start-up and tidying tasks to prepare for the next shift. While doing this task, he noticed that
A worker at a sawmill was doing routine start-up and tidying tasks to prepare for the next shift. While doing this task, he noticed that the dust collection pipe for the trim saw was clogged with wood debris. With the saw still running, the worker removed the exhaust pipe and noticed slivers sticking out of the connection. He took out one wood sliver but saw more lodged in the opening. He reached to remove one of them but at that moment the sliver was pulled into the saw. As a result, the workers hand was drawn into the opening of the pipe, where his gloved fingers contacted the moving saw blade inside, causing him serious injury. From the interview, expert learned that it was common at the workplace for the dust collection pipe to get clogged with sawdust wood slivers. Often workers were able to fix the clog by just banging on the pipe to loosen the debris. This worker had cleared such jams many times before by pulling slivers away from the pipe connection opening and had not been injured. In this case, however, the first slivers the worker pulled out were not close to the saw blade and so he didnt realize that the larger sliver was entangled in the saw. Lacking this knowledge, he believed it was safe to remove it just as he had the others. Assume that you are the human factor expert, identify the critical behaviour, highlight the reasons of negligence and devise a behaviour-based safety (BBS) approach to improve workplace safety.
Step by Step Solution
There are 3 Steps involved in it
Get step-by-step solutions from verified subject matter experts
