Incident Report: How Distractions and Safety Lapses Led to a Fatal Hydra Accident

Incident Report: Material Handling by Hydra

Please find attached a file illustrating an incident (Plant/location-unknown) during material handling by Hydra for your information and sharing with all concerned.

Contributing Factors:

• The operator was listening to music from mobile earphones while operating.
• Two other persons were traveling in the Hydra, distracting the operator.
• Use of Hydra to lift and shift long and heavy loads.
• The guy rope on the victim's side was less than 1 meter.
• A single-leg hitch was used to sling long loads.

Regards,

You have rightly pointed out, "BIG THINGS GO WRONG BECAUSE WE DON'T ACT ON SMALL THINGS." Our safety trainings should emphasize all these aspects as well. Awareness and visible commitment towards safety from top management/government officials is the only cure.

Regards,

Attitudinal Problems and Learning from Mistakes

It is completely an attitudinal problem. People take everything for granted. This incident is purely due to negligence. Wise men will learn from others' mistakes; fools will never learn from even their own mistakes. How many of us want to be wise? The choice is yours.

Regards,
Balaji

It's a real eye-opener incident. I agree with Mr. V Balaji that people take everything for granted. I always remember one quote from my Safety Leader, "SAFETY IS JUST COMMON SENSE." Most incidents happen due to negligence only.

Regards,
Viney Duggal

Good job on sharing this information. Where did this accident happen? Everyone knows what to do, but no one is following the procedures. Attention is only paid when things go wrong. We are sacrificing too many valuable human lives to learn about safety. Where do we stand?

Regards, Vijay

Exactly, you said it right, Vijay. "We are paying much valuable human life to learn safety." Everybody knows what we want to do. What are the rules for everything? A very small example: how many of them use a HELMET while driving a 2-wheeler? Most of them use helmets, but they do not fasten the chin straps while using the helmet.

Here is a live example of mine (I am ashamed of myself to say this: the helmet I am using in India has a chin strap, but it is damaged. I know if I fall, it will surely fly away from my head, but I am still using it.) I am sure I will change it next time!

Mr. Vijay, I understand your feelings by your words, always do our level best...

Dear Dipil, Great job. In our shipyard, the movement of the hydra is very high. The hydra operator has developed the habit of listening to music while driving the hydra and also talking on mobile phones. I have posted your incident on the notice board and instructed security not to allow any hydra operator to take the phone inside. We have standard operating procedures (SOP) for goods movement, and we are providing training to workers and hydra operators to ensure compliance with this SOP.

Yours in safety,

Aquadefonte

Thank you for your reply. Please have a look at the thread below in which I have commented regarding the Hydra: https://www.citehr.com/399621-labour...gurgaon-2.html

"The recent updates from Corporate Safety of L&T ECC indicate that they are banning the use of Hydra on project sites due to the repeated incidents involving Hydra. In our company, we are also planning to implement this change and replace Hydra with modified models like K10 or HP-216. Currently, we only allow the use of Hydra with run-over protection and have ceased any new procurement of Hydra.

We are considering moving forward with this decision.

I was going through some threads commenting on the safety culture of various corporations. As an individual, I think I do not have any authority to comment adversely. Instead, my approach is to learn from those incidents and try to avoid similar accidents in our companies, creating awareness. It is said, "Experience is the best teacher, but its fees are very high; hence, we have to learn from the experience of others."

Let us use this forum to upgrade our knowledge and adopt best practices. The change that was brought in Dipils Company should be a lesson to all of us. I saw the advantages of K10 and HP-216 models after Dipil posted on the forum. Thank you, Dipil.

Best regards,
Sudhir

Dear Mr. Dipil,

This is the problem we are facing at all construction sites. If you give instructions or orders not to use a mobile phone or listen to music through earphones while driving or working, you will become an enemy to the users/workers. Only after an incident or accident do some people realize, but the victim cannot be alive to realize the fault.

Thanks for sharing. By seeing this type of thread, if at least a few lives are saved, that's our achievement.

Regards.