News / National
Man crushed to death cleaning sugar spillage
19 Aug 2014 at 08:18hrs | Views
A 35-YEAR-OLD man was crushed to death at Tongaat Hullet's, Hippo Valley sugar milling plant when his supervisor allegedly switched on a conveyor belt he was working on.
Fortune Mupfudze was killed on Thursday when Vengai Chigagure reportedly switched on the machine.
Doctors at the company certified him dead on the spot after his body was retrieved from under the conveyor belt.
A leaked Tongaat Hullets Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) alert report dated August 14, 2014 shows that Chigagure ordered his subordinates to clean sugar spillages underneath conveyor belts.
The report referenced ML/SF Reclaim conveyor/02, blamed the supervisor for using unsafe practice whilst blaming the company for failing to install "guarding" on the conveyor tail pulley.
The report highlighted the absence of an emergency stop button at the tail end of the conveyor as a major contributing factor in Mupfudze's death.
"Due to unavailability of empty rail wagons a decision was made to reclaim sugar spillages back into the storage shed using a front end loader.
"This process involved shovelling spilled sugar onto a stationary conveyor belt and then conveying the sugar to a front end loader which was stationed at the loading point," reads part of the report.
It is stated in the report that the cleaning team faced challenges with conveyor number three, which was slipping at the head pulley.
"Maintenance fitters were called to attend to the belt and they re-tensioned the conveyor belt," read the report.
The report shows the team moved to the tail end of conveyor number three intending to start conveyor number four so that they could empty sugar that was already at the belt while testing conveyor number three.
According to the report, Chigagure said he saw Mupfudze wrestling with a trapped shovel after the conveyor belts were switched on and rushed to trip the emergency wire.
"Fortune started shovelling sugar onto the tail end of moving conveyor No 3. The shovel that he was using was trapped between the conveyor belt and the tail pulley. The supervisor alleges that he only saw Fortune wrestling with the trapped shovel and rushed to the emergency trip wire in order to bring the moving conveyor to a stop," the report said.
The supervisor discovered that Mupfudze had been trapped underneath the conveyor pulley and doctors from the company certified him dead.
Workers who spoke on condition of anonymity alleged that Chigagure could try to cover up for what they see as his negligence.
"What can the supervisor say in such an incident? He will give a report which covers his back. Mupfudze was finishing off the cleaning at conveyor number three and the supervisor just switched on the conveyors without checking where and what his team mates were doing and this resulted in this avoidable fatality," said a worker.
Tongaat Hullets cooperate affairs and communications manager Adelaide Chikunguru-Musvovi was unreachable for comment as she is said to be out of the country.
Fortune Mupfudze was killed on Thursday when Vengai Chigagure reportedly switched on the machine.
Doctors at the company certified him dead on the spot after his body was retrieved from under the conveyor belt.
A leaked Tongaat Hullets Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) alert report dated August 14, 2014 shows that Chigagure ordered his subordinates to clean sugar spillages underneath conveyor belts.
The report referenced ML/SF Reclaim conveyor/02, blamed the supervisor for using unsafe practice whilst blaming the company for failing to install "guarding" on the conveyor tail pulley.
The report highlighted the absence of an emergency stop button at the tail end of the conveyor as a major contributing factor in Mupfudze's death.
"Due to unavailability of empty rail wagons a decision was made to reclaim sugar spillages back into the storage shed using a front end loader.
"This process involved shovelling spilled sugar onto a stationary conveyor belt and then conveying the sugar to a front end loader which was stationed at the loading point," reads part of the report.
"Maintenance fitters were called to attend to the belt and they re-tensioned the conveyor belt," read the report.
The report shows the team moved to the tail end of conveyor number three intending to start conveyor number four so that they could empty sugar that was already at the belt while testing conveyor number three.
According to the report, Chigagure said he saw Mupfudze wrestling with a trapped shovel after the conveyor belts were switched on and rushed to trip the emergency wire.
"Fortune started shovelling sugar onto the tail end of moving conveyor No 3. The shovel that he was using was trapped between the conveyor belt and the tail pulley. The supervisor alleges that he only saw Fortune wrestling with the trapped shovel and rushed to the emergency trip wire in order to bring the moving conveyor to a stop," the report said.
The supervisor discovered that Mupfudze had been trapped underneath the conveyor pulley and doctors from the company certified him dead.
Workers who spoke on condition of anonymity alleged that Chigagure could try to cover up for what they see as his negligence.
"What can the supervisor say in such an incident? He will give a report which covers his back. Mupfudze was finishing off the cleaning at conveyor number three and the supervisor just switched on the conveyors without checking where and what his team mates were doing and this resulted in this avoidable fatality," said a worker.
Tongaat Hullets cooperate affairs and communications manager Adelaide Chikunguru-Musvovi was unreachable for comment as she is said to be out of the country.
Source - chronicle
