Kalium Lakes has made a series of changes to the tyre changing process on its mining trucks after a worker was seriously injured when a tyre exploded.
The incident occurred on an access road at the Kalium Lakes Beyondie mine around 160 kilometres south east of Newman, Western Australia, in July 2022.
Two workers were reinflating a tyre on a road train when it exploded. An investigation revealed they had both been standing in the line of fire in front of the tyre at the time, due to being provided with a 1m inflation hose.
The percussive blast propelled one of the workers backwards, knocking him unconscious for around four minutes. The force blew off his safety glasses and hard hat, tore his shirt and caused numerous small wounds.
Upon regaining consciousness, the injured man was in extreme pain and unable to sit up. He has since undergone surgery and is still suffering health effects from the incident, including nerve damage and hearing loss.
The worker had been contracted by K19 Mining to provide services at Beyondie but had not received any training prior to the incident beyond a basic site induction and did not complete a job hazard analysis prior to fixing the tyre.
WorkSafe commissioner Sally North said he is lucky to be alive.
“It is common industry knowledge that a tyre explosion can result in a sudden release of stored energy known as a percussive blast,” North said.
“Workers should not be in the line of fire when reinflating tyres and should be using tyre cages in a controlled environment.
“There are a number of measures K19 Mining could have taken to significantly reduce the risk to the workers.”
K19 was subsequently fined $350,000 plus costs of $4,568.70 failing to ensure the safety of a worker and by that contravention causing serious harm under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020.
Both K19 and Kalium Lakes have taken measures to protect workers performing tyre maintenance in the future.
K19 purchased 15m air hoses to allow workers to stand outside an exclusion zone, replacing the 1m hose that led to the incident.
Kalium Lakes has implemented a new procedure that requires tyre reinflation to occur in K19 Mining’s on-site workshop. The miner has also ensured tyre cages are available in the area, which are used to absorb energy from a tyre failure.
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