Tom Bolton and Peter Kerr received fatal injuries and Shane Swift and Morris Bissell received serious injuries when a water truck WT3 rolled forward in pit 19B at the Moura open cut mine and collided with the side of a service vehicle (ST4). The service truck (ST4) was parked parallel to front end loader 10 (FEL10) for the purpose of carrying out repairs or service to FEL10. The deceased and injured persons were standing between the service truck and the front end loader. The force of the collision pushed ST4 against FEL10 causing the injuries which were in the nature of crush injuries. Tom Bolton died at the accident site on the 31 December 1993. Peter Kerr was taken to the Moura hospital but died from his injuries a short time later. The injured persons received medical attention and have since recovered.
Recommendations
Consideration should be given to the installation of some form of engineering controls either physical visual or audible to indicate non-application of park brake by heavy mobile equipment operators.
The mine sites should conduct risk assessments and review their traffic rules to determine the adequacy of their site parking procedures. Ongoing auditing of these procedures should be built into the process.