Fatality: Injury from an air hose

A member has reported that it is aware of the following incident, whereby a worker was struck on the head by a compressed air hose which had blown off of its fitting on a piece of equipment. He received serious head injuries, which proved fatal.

The air hose had been held by a hose clamp on the fitting, with no keeper, restraining chain or sling to prevent the hose from thrashing around and this failure to properly secure the hose and hose clamp was identified as the primary cause of the incident.

This had been a ‘routine’ task and didn’t require a formal written job safety analysis to be carried out.

However, the company has highlighted the destructive potential of unrestrained compressed air hoses to all personnel through toolbox talks and safety training.

It has expressed the need for keepers, chains, slings, special proprietary couplings and whip-checks to be installed on all diameter or high-pressure compressed air hoses, in order to prevent them thrashing about in the event of a hose or coupling failure (see figure). The company has undertaken to perform regular inspections of all compressed-air-powered equipment, including hoses, in order to assess the integrity of couplings, clamps, keepers and hoses and to allow corrective action to be taken.