Machinist Struck and Killed by Fragments from Ruptured Steam Turbine Housing

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Michigan Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (Project) (MIFACE) ; Michigan State University. Department of Medicine. Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Description:
  On Saturday, February 24, 2001, a 51-year-old journeyman machinist was killed when he was struck by fragments projected from a steam turbine that broke apart during an overspeed trip test. He and several other employees of his company that rebuilt the turbine (Company A), employees of the company that operated the steam turbine (Company B), and employees of the company that owned, maintained, and used the wind generated by the turbine (Company C) were observing the test. Three overspeed trip tests were required before the turbine that had recently been sent out for repairs could be brought into production operation. The overspeed trip test consisted of allowing the turbine to accelerate to a particular rpm speed to test a mechanical shutoff valve that would prevent the turbine from accelerating to a dangerous speed. On the second test, the mechanical shutoff valve did not function properly and allowed the turbine to reach an overspeed condition. The turbine buckets overran their safe speed, and the turbine rotor failed. One hundred buckets broke away from one of the twelve rings on the shaft and pierced the two-inch thick turbine housing. Fragments from the broken housing and turbine buckets struck the victim causing his death. Recommendations: 1. Develop, document, and implement a procedure for inspecting, reporting, operating, maintaining, and repairing equipment and replacing defective equipment based on manufacturer's instructions, industry guidelines and consensus standards. A job safety analysis of all routine and non-routine work should be included in the procedures. 2. Train workers to use the procedures developed in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions, industry standards, and consensus guidelines. Use the job safety analyses to improve workers' ability to recognize existing or potentially hazardous conditions. 3. Develop a clear description of job responsibilities and accountability for each worker and supervisor. 4. Do not operate equipment with nonfunctioning or malfunctioning parts. 5. Provide guardrails, barriers, signs, floor markings, and signals to warn workers of potential hazards.
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date provided by FACE program
  
  not printed on the report.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Equipment-operators Equipment-reliability Injuries Injury-prevention Occupational-hazards Occupational-safety-programs OSHA Region 5 Personal-protection Personal-protective-equipment Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Signaling-systems Training Traumatic-injuries Work-analysis Work-areas Work-operations Work-performance Work-practices Workplace-monitoring

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• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE01MI011
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Michigan ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  9 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20026769
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2008-109005
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 01MI011, 2002 Feb ; :1-8
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• Performing Organization:
  Michigan State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  31-33 - Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2002/09/01
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2631799f28f111f1de0e02da23104542ab0a21518e610d86ffa03e48fe6b910eb7e757b491d4fcc2c18db87ffc281d7ac73895dd610b801c1dc959b9ab4c349b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/169196/cdc_169196_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 337.07 KB ]