Perilous intervention in a quarry

An employee was injured in an open pit gypsum quarry during an intervention to remove a metal scraper trapped in the secondary crusher. Various operations were carried out on the outside of the crusher to extract the part, but all were unsuccessful. The electromechanical technician then climbed up onto the cylinders and tried to cut the part and heat the area between the 2 cylinders to allow for its removal. He lost his balance and his foot got wedged between the two cylinders. The victim was granted an initial leave of absence for medical reasons for 59 days.

A multitude of potential hazards

The metal detector between the primary and secondary crushers had been inoperative since the day before. The installation was not equipped with a device for locking the rotation of the cylinders despite them being locked out. The residual mechanical energies had not been purged.