Accidents J1 the Light Fitting

Accidents J1

The light fitting accident

In the case in question, a maintenance worker in the UK had decided as part of his regular duties, to change a light fitting in the roof over a passage of a machine workshop. But although not derelict in his desire to do hard work, clearly the worker was derelict regarding his own personal safety. The worker decided to gain access to the skylight on the roof using an overhead crane and did not inform either the manager on the floor or his fellow workers of his decision to change the light or use the crane.

Furthermore, for safety purposes, the crane was not in use in the bay so the other workers were unaware of an additional crane on the workshop floor. The worker in question should have had a clear idea as to how to change the light in a safe and efficacious manner while still keeping his manager and fellow employees informed. But he did not, his first dereliction of duty. After positioning the crane under the light the worker removed the main fuse from the electrical panel in the crane cabin, the worker positioned his stepladder on the crane platform. He ascended the steps to change the light. While he was doing so, a worker on another crane, unaware of what was transpiring, hit the stationary crane on which the worker in question was changing the light. This caused the worker's stepladder to fall and the man changing the light to fall onto the stationary machinery of the crane and sustain a broken arm.

The falling stepladder hit the crane hook on the way down. This threw the ladder on to a turning lathe, cutting the arm of the other operator of the alternate crane. This operator had made his actions known to his supervisor. But although he had made his actions and duties clear to all other workers on the floor, he could not have been aware of the light being changed because the first worker had engaged in spontaneous decision making regarding the light repair and unauthorized use of the crane.

Communication between workers, and workers and management is the key to workplace safety. Although the primary fault may lay with the maintenance worker's decision to engage in a potentially dangerous action without supervision, he might have been prevented from doing so, had he at least informed the other worker on the floor? And even if he had foolhardily gone ahead, at least the collision might have been prevented because the fellow worker would have desisted in his own authorized action to make way for the unauthorized action.

Ignorance of company safety policy and ignorance of multiple operations going on in the same workspace are the main factors leading to this multi-causal accident. It is easy to be safe in the best of circumstances, but one reason that UK statutory legislation specifies that proper safety protocols be followed, and dangerous actions such as the use of a crane to change a high standing fixture be supervised and validated by another worker and superior, is the acknowledgement that hands on maintenance working life is seldom conducted under the easiest of circumstances.