By Chris Coetzee
In June 2024, at the Plumbing’s Traveling Exhibition, I had the opportunity to chat to some plumbers working out in the field. We spoke about various issues and the dangers of tools and equipment being used on site, and to my surprise, I met a young man who almost lost his arm because of a grinder.
Image supplied by Andrew Armstrong
“I wasn’t sure why it jumped out at me. There shouldn’t have been anything behind the wood in that area. Maybe the carpenter put an extra-long screw in that I didn’t know about,” said the plumber.
Not knowing what previous trades had done to ensure their work was installed led to a serious incident that could have ended the life of this plumber. The grinder caught him on the arm, ripping through the muscle and nearly severed the radial artery. If this had happened, he may not have been at the expo to tell me his story.
Eleanor Roosevelt said: “Learn from the mistakes of others.”
What can we learn from this experience that left a plumber with minimal use of his hand, a vital tool in the plumber’s trade? We first need to understand the scenario to get a clear picture of what went wrong.
According to the plumber, he had the task of using a portable electrical grinding machine to cut through some wood in order to make space for an installation. Without warning, the grinder caught onto something that the caused the grinder to ricochet backward toward his face, in instinct, he put his left arm up to protect his face and the grinding disc made contact with his arm, causing a serious injury.
The second thing we need to understand is that this is a common occurrence. We need to know what measures can be taken to prevent this type of incident. Since I did not have the opportunity to do the incident investigation, we can only speculate at the results and try to recreate the events based on what we have heard.
We do know that according to the plumber, he was not working near the corner of the woodwork and so, in his mind, there should not have been any metal objects near where he was grinding, about 500mm away from the corner.
As a plumber, you no doubt know the importance of locating services in unseen areas before commencing works. Often this is left out in the quote and the onus is on the client to stipulate where services may be in the installation area. Other plumbing companies place this on their quotes as an added optional extra for the client to see and approve if they wish.
Still other plumbing companies I have spoken to state that they include scanning for services if they have identified through trial and error, the most common areas for services to be found. They always go with ‘worst case scenario’ tactics as its better to be safe than sorry. However, since this was not the case with the task being performed by our brave plumber, who stated, “There should not have been any metal objects near where I was grinding,” we are left to accept that this was a once off occurrence that unfortunately led to a serious incident and a lifetime of pain and rehabilitation.
Does this leave us with nothing to glean from our unfortunate victim and the scars he will carry around forever? Not at all. We can learn a lot from this scenario, as well as what was mentioned about our plumber’s time in the hospital and rehabilitation centre.
There were three other individuals who had a similar experience with a grinder being treated for other serious injuries at the same time as our plumber. Four separate individuals, four separate cases and four serious injuries that were life-threatening.
One of the first questions I asked was, “Didn’t the grinder have a dead-man’s switch?” But this is not stated in our legislation under Electrical Machinery Regulations 2011 – Section 10 ‘Portable Electrical Tools’ subsection 3 “no employer or user shall use or permit the use of a portable electric tool which is not fitted with a switch to allow for easy and safe starting and stopping of the tool.”
In all our legislation, I have not had any reference to a dead-man’s switch or the need for it on our sites. Some of the grinders I went to have a look at had a standard feature from the manufacturer and others did not, especially baby-grinders.
The most common grinder I found for use within the plumbing industry was a little grinder that had a switch that you could press and latch in place. This type of switch allowed the grinder to continue to operate without any pressure applied to the switch. We have seen the negative and disastrous effects of this and so we urge you to consider the following safety measures when selecting portable electrical tools such as grinders:
- Look for a grinder that includes this feature.
- Develop Safe Operating Procedures for grinders that are specific to your company and scope of work/operation.
- Have training in place for employees who need to operate a grinder.
- Periodically document inspections of all portable tools to ensure that they are safe to use.
- Have an emergency plan that outlines what to do in the case of an injury with a grinder.
- Keep an Incident Investigation procedure with you to follow after an incident so that you have all the facts to prevent it from happing again.
This list is not exhaustive and only represents a few things to keep in mind, for more information please reach out to your safety department or IOPSA.
To our injured plumber and all those who have suffered previously, we cannot express our empathy enough in words for your situation, and we are grateful for the opportunity to learn from your incident. “I would like to tell everyone about what I experienced and what I am going through, especially if it will help them not make the same mistake,” says the injured plumber. These words should reach each of us deeply, especially if it’s our desire to never be personally affected by an accident.
Portable electrical and hand tools can be replaced if they are broken or not working correctly. The most important tools a plumber has are their hands, these cannot be replaced. Take safety in your hands and think about the consequences of your actions.
Whether you are an experience plumber or are just starting out in your career, remember that accidents happen around us all the time, but this is not reason to accept that it’s just a part of the job, rather make safety a part of the job, so when we meet again, you have a hand I can shake.
