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| Record Number: |
2627 |
| CIS Descriptors: |
MANHOLES
WORK IN
SEWERS
HEAD INJURIES
EXPLOSION
HAZARDS
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REPORT
CHARACTERISTICS:
DONOR: Office of the Chief
Coroner
JURISDICTION: Ontario
REPORT TITLE: Verdict of the
Coroner's Jury
INDIVIDUAL PRESIDING: Dr. David Coates,
Coroner
PLACE OF INQUIRY: Windsor
DATE OF INQUIRY :
1996-09-09
INFORMATION ABOUT DECEASED:
NAME: Ronald
Girard
OCCUPATION: Diver
INDUSTRIAL SECTOR: Construction
industry
ACCIDENT INFORMATION:
DATE OF ACCIDENT :
1996-05-18
PLACE OF ACCIDENT: Unavailable
BRIEF CAUSE OF
DEATH: Severe head trauma
BRIEF MANNER OF DEATH: Explosion of a
sewer plug in a manhole
ACCIDENT
DESCRIPTION:
Unavailable.
RECOMMENDATIONS ISSUING FROM
INQUIRY:
1. Safety seminars should be conducted regularly,
by the employer, to
ensure proper and safe usage of equipment
by their employees.
2. Instruction manuals, with safety
procedures, are necessary for all
equipment - owned or rented
by a construction company and must be
made available to all
employees.
3. Personnel required to install pipe plugs
should be trained and
tested to perform the procedure according
to standards supplied by
the Ministry of Labour, Health and
Safety and monitored yearly by
the government agency.
4.
Safety harnesses should be worn at all times when a worker
is
entering and working in a manhole in case of emergency and
for
communication with a monitor outside of the
manhole.
5. Air supply regulators should be on site and
readily available to the
workers during construction where psi
measurements are required.
6. Under no circumstances should
any person be in the pipe or manhole
when a sewer plug is being
inflated or under air pressure.
7. Pipe plug manufacturers
should have specifications for use of all
pipe plugs visibly
displayed in a prominent location with the date
of manufacture
and of life expectancy.
8. Contractors who purchase pipe
plugs must maintain them in safe
working order. Inspection of
all equipment should be made and
recorded on a yearly
basis.
9. If a visual inspection is required of a
pressurized plug in a
manhole a remote video camera should be
utilized.
COMMENTS ON RECOMMENDATIONS BY CORONER:
1.
Mr. Menard who assisted Mr. Girard in inflating the sewer
plug,
indicated that he had not had any special training on the
use of
sewer plugs or considered whether or not he needed to
have a
regulated air flow for the inflation.
2. The
cavalon sewer plug which was used to block the outlet pipe
did
not have any safety manual or any discussion of correct
procedure
for installing the plug safely.
3. The jury
wished to note that the sewer plugs were inspected by
the
government safety department periodically as prescribed by
law.
There were no manuals available for plug installation
found with the
Dunn Paving Company although a similar type plug
instruction manual
was obtained from ESP Environmental Service
Products in
Pennsylvania.
4. The diver was difficult to
pull out of the manhole after the plug
exploded as he was not
wearing any safety harness.
5. It was noted that Mr. Menard
attempted to obtain an air supply from
one of the trucks on
site which did have a regulator for air,
however, after a wait
another truck with an unregulated air supply
was
used.
6. Self-explanatory.
7. Comparison with the
newer pipe plug showed that the markings of the
older pipe plug
were not as easily read, that is, PSI and the
size
specification. There were also no measurements for the
date of
manufacture and life expectancy.
8. It was noted
that this particular plug had been inflated and left
inflated
for a week to test its adequacy. There was no written
record
kept of inspection of equipment.
9. Follows from #6, so
that no person would be in the vicinity of the
inflated pipe
plug in the case of an explosion.
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©2004 Canadian Centre for Occupational
Health & Safety 