How responsible are we.

[ericmark]

Does it take this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/10539463.stm type of accident before incompetent and lax workers are taken to task.

However I must admit in the past I have followed plans blindly and have not questioned if safe. When one works some where that safety is taken seriously like working in Toyota's factory at Deeside then you move else where one realises that the safeties are missing.

But until you see what should be in place one does not even think of what may happen.

Not commenting on this case that would of course be wrong but I wonder if our apprenticeship or at least the formal training should instead of having general studies should include some health and safety training so we are all aware of the possible routes.

132.15.2 Every fixed electric motor shall be provided with an efficient means of switching off, readily accessible. easily operated and so placed as to prevent danger.

So simple but how many times is it not observed?

 

[andrew1210]

That is shocking that an innocent child was killed by a piece of machinery that by regs., should have been easy to isolate. I also find it surprising that the gate did not have some sort of jam reverse mechanism or an infrared beam to stop such collisions... Again, does it take this sort of thing to happen before these flaws are patched?

 

[ericmark]

an infrared beam to stop such collisions...

We don't know that it didn't but at what hight? The bars with multi-beams are very expensive and open to vandalism and it is common to rely and a single beam.
In industry there is no or little vandalism and bars are common. Beam top to bottom of post would be favourite but pressure of snow could be less than child remembering it was not the crush damage that killed her "she went into cardiac arrest."
However since police had to smash motor seems there was a real failure. Not really wanting to talk about this but more general as to mistakes we make.

I designed and installed the electrics for a concrete press and I was careful to try to interconnect PLC and safeties and one has to be very careful as some bits removing power could make accident worse or cause an accident. In spite all my efforts two accidents happened. Both due to operator error and one was avoidable had more guards been installed. The other the guy had to climb the press to get injured and was similar to some one climbing a power cables pole.

However if one stands under an unmanned railway crossing barrier are you telling me it would not hit you and it would stop and instead put the lights on red for the train and stop that instead? Are there diagonal beams across the track to detect any vehicle or person in the trains path and will it stop the train in time?

If not then why not and if it is deemed as not required then why is it required for any other gate?

My hope is of course to raise awareness and hopefully prevent another similar accident. But as far as two people arrested let him without sin cast the first stone.

 

[Spark123]

Switching off the power should have cut the power to the motor - it is very probable that it did but the gearbox will have been designed with a security gate in mind to stop dead and not allow the gate to be pulled open.

 

[ColJack]

does it really even need IR beams to stop it? the doors on an elevator have a bump strip down one edge and re-open if they hit anything hard..
so why not fit them to the edge of the gate?

 

[andrew1210]

Yeah, generally speaking, I was thinking that about the bumper edge also, but as stated above, has the security aspect been taken into the equation, in that when the gate is commanded to close, it will close fully to ensure the security of the premises?