Machine guards must not become their own hazards or exacerbate existing hazards. Analyze designs to eliminate guards that can be left off, those that fail easily and catastrophically, and those that fail to prevent hazards.
A student was severely burned when a spark from his grinding operation caught his shirt on fire. He hadn’t been taught the hazards of grinder use or the proper protective equipment for the job.
A worker died of head wounds suffered when a pneumatic bar feeder that was guarding his workpiece slid back to allow the workpiece to bend and strike him in the head.
Four fingers on a worker’s hand were crushed when a press brake cycled while he was reaching into it. His employer was operating the machine normally while it undertook a year-long attempt to add safety devices
A man was seriously injured when the conveyor he was working on started without warning. Modified equipment, lockout/tagout negligence, and missing e-stops contributed to the accident.
A former engineer was severely injured when the front wheels of the tractor he was driving fell into a culvert. He had removed a heavy-duty, rollover-protection arch because it was hitting the branches of his fruit trees when he drove the equipment between rows.
