Mechanical and Safety Engineering (MASE) Product Failure Injury Report
Product involved: Ottoman
What happened: A woman sitting on an ottoman fell and received injuries when the ottoman she was seated on collapsed due to a catastrophic failure of the connection of one of the legs.
Injuries: Unknown
Recommendations: It is unknown at this time whether the failure was due to a design defect or a manufacturing/material defect. Engineering calculations or finite element analysis (FEA) should have been used to ensure that the ottoman is adequately designed by the manufacturer. Using engineering design principles as well as industry standards, with an adequate factor of safety to accommodate dynamic loading that occurs when a person drops down into the seat/ottoman; the ottoman could have been designed to safely support its occupants. Adequate quality control procedures would likely have caught any material or manufacturing defect.
OSHA/Standard violations?: No
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Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Shuttle Bus Luggage Rack Accident
Mechanical and Safety Engineering (MASE) Product Failure Injury Report
Product involved: Shuttle bus luggage rack
What happened: A person riding an airport shuttle bus received head injuries when a large suitcase tipped out of the luggage rack and fell onto his head.
Injuries: Minor head injuries
Recommendations: Ensuring that luggage is properly secured is important to prevent accidents from moving luggage, especially when contact with a person is possible or probable. A properly designed luggage rack would utilize full coverage guarding in directions that would likely result in contact with occupants, or a door or gate access. Another alternative is placing support bars high enough to prevent luggage from tipping over the bar during hard braking or acceleration.
OSHA/Standard violations?: No
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Product involved: Shuttle bus luggage rack
What happened: A person riding an airport shuttle bus received head injuries when a large suitcase tipped out of the luggage rack and fell onto his head.
Injuries: Minor head injuries
Recommendations: Ensuring that luggage is properly secured is important to prevent accidents from moving luggage, especially when contact with a person is possible or probable. A properly designed luggage rack would utilize full coverage guarding in directions that would likely result in contact with occupants, or a door or gate access. Another alternative is placing support bars high enough to prevent luggage from tipping over the bar during hard braking or acceleration.
OSHA/Standard violations?: No
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Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Paintball Eye Injury
Mechanical and Safety Engineering (MASE) Product Failure Injury Report
Product involved: Paintball marker
What happened: A child spectating a paintball game was hit in the eye.
Injuries: Partial blindness
Recommendations: Paintball games require proper eye protection to ensure participant safety. Referees are also required to enforce safety rules and to stop game play if a hazardous situation occurs. This particular injury was to a non-participant. Spectator viewing areas must be properly safeguarded so onlookers are protected from the paintballs. Doors and passageways are a common weakness at paintball fields. Overlapped netting can protect onlookers and ensure paintballs do not leave the playing field.
OSHA/Standard violations?: No
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Product involved: Paintball marker
What happened: A child spectating a paintball game was hit in the eye.
Injuries: Partial blindness
Recommendations: Paintball games require proper eye protection to ensure participant safety. Referees are also required to enforce safety rules and to stop game play if a hazardous situation occurs. This particular injury was to a non-participant. Spectator viewing areas must be properly safeguarded so onlookers are protected from the paintballs. Doors and passageways are a common weakness at paintball fields. Overlapped netting can protect onlookers and ensure paintballs do not leave the playing field.
OSHA/Standard violations?: No
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Tricam Fiberglass Ladder Spreader Bar Failure
Mechanical and Safety Engineering (MASE) Product Failure Injury Report
Product involved: Tricam Fiberglass Ladder
What happened: A person was injured when a spreader bar of his Tricam ladder failed, causing the ladder to collapse
Injuries: Unknown
Recommendations: Stepladder spreader bar failure is not as common as other ladder accident failure modes. Without spreader bars, a stepladder is highly unstable and likely to collapse or tip. Normally spreader bar failures are due to a manufacturing or material defect, but can also be due to a design problem as well. A rigid plate spreader would have prevented the extreme instability resulting from the failure of one spreader bar connection.
OSHA/Standard violations?: No
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Product involved: Tricam Fiberglass Ladder
What happened: A person was injured when a spreader bar of his Tricam ladder failed, causing the ladder to collapse
Injuries: Unknown
Recommendations: Stepladder spreader bar failure is not as common as other ladder accident failure modes. Without spreader bars, a stepladder is highly unstable and likely to collapse or tip. Normally spreader bar failures are due to a manufacturing or material defect, but can also be due to a design problem as well. A rigid plate spreader would have prevented the extreme instability resulting from the failure of one spreader bar connection.
OSHA/Standard violations?: No
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Concrete Form Pin Connection Failure
Mechanical and Safety Engineering (MASE) Product Failure Injury Report
Product involved: Concrete Forms/Pin Connection
What happened: A worker was injured while attempting to disassemble steel forms for concrete. A pin that supported the forms failed resulting in the form dropping onto the worker’s head.
Injuries: Head injuries
Recommendations: Positioning of connections can be important for these types of structures. It is important for the connections to be accessed safely, without getting underneath the forms in a crush zone. Positioning connections so that the forms can be broken from the side would prevent these types of accidents
OSHA/Standard violations?: unknown
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Product involved: Concrete Forms/Pin Connection
What happened: A worker was injured while attempting to disassemble steel forms for concrete. A pin that supported the forms failed resulting in the form dropping onto the worker’s head.
Injuries: Head injuries
Recommendations: Positioning of connections can be important for these types of structures. It is important for the connections to be accessed safely, without getting underneath the forms in a crush zone. Positioning connections so that the forms can be broken from the side would prevent these types of accidents
OSHA/Standard violations?: unknown
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Hydraulic Fitting Failure Causes Dump Truck Bed to Fall
Mechanical and Safety Engineering (MASE) Product Failure Injury Report
Product involved: Dump Truck
What happened: A maintenance worker was killed when the raised bed of a dump truck fell onto him due to the failure of a hydraulic fitting which allowed the hydraulic pressure to drop rapidly
Injuries: Death
Recommendations: A check valve on the hydraulic system would have prevented loss of pressure due to the fitting failure. Also additional means of supporting the weight of the truck bed would have prevented the bed from falling when the hydraulic fitting failed.
OSHA/Standard violations?: unknown
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Product involved: Dump Truck
What happened: A maintenance worker was killed when the raised bed of a dump truck fell onto him due to the failure of a hydraulic fitting which allowed the hydraulic pressure to drop rapidly
Injuries: Death
Recommendations: A check valve on the hydraulic system would have prevented loss of pressure due to the fitting failure. Also additional means of supporting the weight of the truck bed would have prevented the bed from falling when the hydraulic fitting failed.
OSHA/Standard violations?: unknown
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Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Wood Chipper Accident
Mechanical and Safety Engineering (MASE) Product Failure Injury Report
Product involved: Wood Chipper
What happened: A worker became pulled into a wood chipper when the bundle of branches he was feeding into the chipper trapped his hand
Injuries: Amputation
Recommendations: Wood chippers are extremely powerful machines that have an entanglement hazard between the powered rollers that pull material into the chipper. These machines should be guarded with as much care and attention to detail as large printing presses. The operator should never be able to reach the point of operation of the chipper. Equipping the chipper with an effective body bar that stopped the machine would have prevented this accident, as would have a deadman platform that the operator would work from that would stop the chipper when it sensed the lack of a person.
OSHA/Standard violations?: no
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Product involved: Wood Chipper
What happened: A worker became pulled into a wood chipper when the bundle of branches he was feeding into the chipper trapped his hand
Injuries: Amputation
Recommendations: Wood chippers are extremely powerful machines that have an entanglement hazard between the powered rollers that pull material into the chipper. These machines should be guarded with as much care and attention to detail as large printing presses. The operator should never be able to reach the point of operation of the chipper. Equipping the chipper with an effective body bar that stopped the machine would have prevented this accident, as would have a deadman platform that the operator would work from that would stop the chipper when it sensed the lack of a person.
OSHA/Standard violations?: no
Visit www.mase.pro for more information on unsafe products
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