Trapped By Airlock Door

Mine ERZ Controller Sustains Injuries Trapped by an Airlock Door

Mines safety bulletin no. 180 | 14 March 2019 | Version 1
A mine ERZ Controller sustained permanent disabling injuries after his leg was trapped in an airlock door for over five hours. This potentially life threatening injury also had a high risk of amputation. Background Workers at a central Queensland mine were monitoring a longwall seal up process, part of which included regularly inspecting the final seals and gas monitoring stations in the return airways. While accessing a return airway to conduct bag sampling, an ERZ Controller became trapped at a portal airlock entrance—one of five portal airlock entrances along a high wall. Of the five portal airlock entrances at the site, three were of different designs. Airlock 1 (see image 1) is the design of the airlock the ERZ Controller was trapped in at the outbye door. Airlock 2 is a common airlock design normally used for access at points with high pressure differentials. A third design (not shown) had both doors opening toward the return airway (inbye). The mine had no established standard for airlock design at the time of the serious accident. At the time of the serious accident, up to 1981pa pressure differential appeared across the airlock where the serious injury occurred, calculated to produce 426.4kg force against the ERZ Controller’s leg. The site did have a current procedure for ‘Working alone in isolated areas’ (‘working alone’ procedure) of the mine, however the procedure was not applied and monitored consistently. The same mine had a serious accident in 2013 when a coal mine worker was trapped in a cable reeler on the surface of the mine. In similar circumstances the injured worker was not found immediately and sustained
permanent disabling injury.This incident was the impetus for implementing the ‘Working alone’ procedure at the mine.

Click here for the full pdf of this bulletin from Queensland Government- Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy