Half-ton part falls from machine

A rock quarry supervisor died when he was hit by a half-ton machine part while servicing a crushing machine.

He and two workers were working on a weekend when the quarry was shut down. They were adjusting a rock crusher, a large machine that produced gravel by crushing rocks which had been blasted from the quarry.

They were in the process of taking off a retaining clamp and moving a large metal shim that determined the size of the crushed rock the machine produced. The victim was standing under the shim assembly when the bolts were removed. The 1000-pound (454 kilogram) machine part hit him in the head, killing him instantly.

Such fatalities can be prevented by using written procedures for servicing machinery and conducting a job hazard analysis of each work activity.