A high potential near miss was reported when an operator was seen in the feed hopper of a mobile crusher without having properly isolated the machine.

The near miss was spotted as, even though the crusher was turned off, the out feed conveyor was still running. This made it obvious to other operators nearby that the engine of the mobile plant was still running. The machine was in a condition where the crusher could have been restarted with the operator still in the feed hopper.

Always Test Start Any Machine

1. Mobile processing plant must be isolated to the same standard as fixed plant. It is not enough to just remove the key from mobile processing plant and place in a pocket


2. Understand how your mobile plant can be fully isolated i.e. incoming material from other pieces of plant


3. Use the isolation point on mobile plant and apply personal isolation padlocks.


4. If this is not possible, or does not fully isolate, then the “ignition key” should be placed in a “lock box” and all personnel can apply their personal isolation locks onto this.


5. Each Isolation must be recorded. A local Isolation Log maybe kept with the plant