Date of Incident: May 11th, 2022
Employees were working to get material to the 6th floor/Penthouse area utilizing the man-made cantilever wheel pulley. The pulley had to be used due to the elevators being down. Gribbins employees have utilized this pulley throughout the outage 100+ times lowering/raising insulation to ground level. Employee on the ground was pulling the rope with new insulation in a trash bag (< 40lbs.), which is tied on with a slip knot. The employee on the 6th level was pushing the rope toward the east away from utilities. A pipe/pipe-rack is secured to the 5.5 level platform. This is the only location where the pulley is not clear when being raised/lowered. The reason the employee was pushing the rope out, was that the man-made cantilever would not swivel, allowing the pulley to extend further to the east allowing complete clearance when being raised or lowered. When the bag was being raised, at the same time the rope was being pushed out, it caused the bag to swing getting hung under the pipes. At the same time this happened, ground man pulled the rope, contacting the pipe/pipe-rack, causing the bag to come loose falling approximately 100-120’ to ground level. Gribbins employees had a 20’x20’ red barricaded area, which is where the bag landed. No injuries or property damage.
Contributing Factors:
- The elevator on Unit #2 was out of service.
- Cantilever would not rotate (seized up)
- Employees did not “STOP WORK” and report the issue of the cantilever not rotating.
Corrective Action:
- Stand-down with crew on site to emphasis the importance of stopping work and reporting issues.
- Cantilever was lubricated and rotated, which allowed the wheel pulley to extend far enough out, away from utilities.
- Installing barricade on the 2nd level platform, to prevent individuals from walking under a suspended load.
