Displaying items by tag: Death

India: A worker has been killed after becoming trapped in a crusher at the Bhavya Cement plant in Andhra Pradesh. The incident took place when the 28-year old worker was cleaning the belt of the crusher, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. The local authorities have inspected the plant

Australia: A report commissioned by the Queensland Ministry of Mines has investigated the causes of all 47 deaths in mines and quarries in the state between 2000 and 2019, concluding that systemic, organisational, supervision or training failures caused the deaths in almost all cases. The report proposed that the state government should require quarry operators to use the Serious Accident Frequency Rate (SAFR) as their metric for health and safety monitoring, calling the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) unreliable because it is prone to manipulation, being “a measure of how the industry manages injuries after they have occurred. It is possible, therefore, to reduce the LTIFR without making the industry safer,” said the report’s author Sean Brady.

In the Australian 2019 financial year, ending 31 July 2019, six people died in Queensland’s quarries and mine.

Laos: An explosion at a quarry related to a cement plant near Phonemany village, Nam Bak district in Luang Prabang province has killed one person and injured over 20. The nearby village was affected by the blast causing damage to houses and vehicles, according to Radio Free Asia. A villager alleged that the Chinese-owned plant never warned locals of the blasting schedule and that the explosion was larger than usual. Khammany Inthirath, Minister of Energy and Mines, said that the government had sent a team to investigate what happened.

Kenya: Chattan Vyas, general manager of a Rai Group-owned grinding plant in Kenya’s Rift Valley province, has been found dead in bed on the morning of 22 September 2019 under mysterious circumstances. The Standard has reported that the attending pathologist confirmed the cause of death as strangulation, noting also that Vyas had been bound.

Canada: Lafarge Canada has received a US$0.3m fine for failing as an employer to ensure that safety measures and procedures in the workplace were upheld. This follows the 2017 death of an employee who fell from a corroded catwalk at the company’s Beachville quarry.

Nigeria: A laden Dangote Cement lorry suffered a brake failure and ran head-on into a bus in Ikorodu, Lagos State on 27 August 2019, killing the bus driver, a trainee bus driver and one passenger. All 69 other passengers were injured.

The Punch has reported that the Dangote vehicle was carrying 45t, significantly over its rated capacity. The company has commenced an investigation of the incident.

Zimbabwe: A blast at Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe’s Sternblick quarry on 15 August 2019 has killed one person and injured another.

Agence Ecofin has reported that two women were at home on Pangoula Farm, Harare, when debris from the quarry entered through the roof, striking 36-year-old Shupikai Chatsina, who lost her life instantly, on the head. She leaves behind a husband and five children. The second woman, Ms Chatsina’s aunt, is recovering in hospital.

LafargeHolcim’s contractor Afri Mining did not follow established blasting procedures. The disaster is under police investigation.

Spain: A 29-year old man has died in a failed attempt to base jump at Cemex España’s former integrated plant at San Vicente del Raspeig near Alicante. The deceased wanted to film a nocturnal descent from a 50m tower at the site for his social media channel, according to the El País newspaper. However, his parachute failed to open during the incident. In June 2018 Cemex was denied permission to demolish the San Vicente del Raspeig plant.

Italy: Giampiero Pesenti, the former chairman of Italcementi, has died at the age of 88. The grandson of one the brothers who created the company in 1906, he took a degree in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan and then started working for Italcementi in 1958. He became chief operating officer and chief executive officer (CEO) before becoming its chairman, according to Reuters. He was known informally at Italcementi as ‘Engineer Giampiero.’ Notably, the Italian cement producer purchased Ciments Francais in 1992, under his leadership, greatly increasing its size. Italcementi was purchased by Germany’s HeidelbergCement in 2016.

UAE: Ahmed Abdullah Al Noman, the chairman of Sharjah Cement & Industrial, has died. He had been in the position since 1993, according to Bloomberg. He was also the chairman of the Bank of Sharjah. The company operates an integrated cement plant as well as paper sack and synthetic rope businesses.