A mate of mine put this D 11 over the wall. Badly shaken but thank God he survived. Seat belt and cab over roll bar saved him.
How far was the drop? Regardless glad to hear he's allright, and will live to tell the tale. I know how quickly things can go from fine to needing to change your pants. What exactly was the story behind it? CJ
Hi CJ. First of all I have to say that he was a very experienced and safety conscious dozer operator. He was traveling south along the edge of the open cut high wall aprox. 60 to 80 ft. high, 10 feet from the edge. The inside edge of the wall cracked and opened up on his left and as he saw this happening he tried to accelerate and turn out of it but it was too late. The whole lot came down like a flood of water over a dam wall. The dozer rolled over as it came down, landed on the cab flipped onto its side and kept rolling untill it settled on its tracks. The cab was smashed, filled with gravel and coal. We dug him out and he was severely shaken, bruised, lacerated, no broken bones and he survived. Cheers, Ironbark.
Glad he's ok, ouch. Hope I never have that experience.
Hi Seabass. He's as tough as nails. We put the jumper leads on him and he was back at work in no time. Cheers, Ironbark.
What a mind-blowing experience! The best part, of course, is living to tell about it.
wow.and what a testiment to that rops cab.
Wow
All I can say is if it'd have been me in the cab, they'd a found a little bit more than just gravel and coal in the cab :lmao
G'day "grandpa" and ohter respondents. When I said we put the jumper leads on him and he was back at work in not time/ what I said was actually true. Both drag line operators in the cut where this incident occured, on seeing what had happened immediatly shut down the dragline, grabbed a box marked first aid kit and ran as fast as they were able to assist. When they finally managed to get the D11 dozer operator out of the cab and then opened the fisrt aid kit, all that was found inside was a pair of electric jumper leads ? Naturally, after that incident all fire and rescue procedures were taken more seriously and rectified!
I like the image
I have more, I will find them and put them up. Cheers, Ironbark.
Please do.
One can better see how the rops cab was crushed but not enough to injure the operator. The wall slumped just to the right side of the knoll. The dozer rolled on the way down, landed on the cab and flipped over on to its tracks.
Holy crap...I would need a new pair of shorts!!
No one was injured here. This Cat D9 slid of the float because it was not chained down and the float operator took the sweep around the corner a little too fast! There it is another shot!
Unless I'm reading something into the photo that's not there and from the position that the dozer landed in the cut he was travelling parallel to the edge of the cut when it let go on him. That is a big no-no in any mining operation I've ever been around. If I am wrong I'll stand corrected but that is what the photo says to me.
Seeing these photos it makes me laugh a little when the big Australian corporate mining companies like BHPB try to import their allegedly "higher" safety standards to other parts of the world ......... :tong:tong
Now if you want to see a dozer over a wall, try this one ....... and believe it or not the operator walked away without a scratch.
G'day Nige. Your correct. Like I said in post 3, he was traveling south along the edge when the earth opened up on his left, and awa it all went, him included.
Praise God forever more! He survived. Cheers, Ironbark.
Holy Shot. That's unbelievable! Thank god noone was hurt.
As usual, there is a story behind why he walked away without so much as a scratch ......... I'm amazed no-one's asked.
That last one had have been remote controlled or something.
Nope ......
What can one say? Many things lead up to tragic accidents like this. Its hardly ever just one thing. A combination of excessively Long shifts, (12+ hours), no or low berm, not familiar with haul roads in a particular cut, mechanical failure.
I wont ask. Info like that is given volentarily or not. Depends on family. I know of a man who died in a truck over the wall. Left a wife and two small children. Very sad.
Jumped?
No. If you look just to the left of centre of the photo with the water truck in it you can see a discontinuity of the berm right on the skyline, that's where the dozer came from. The story is he was preparing a drill pad up on that top level and something "felt funny" according to him. So he parked about 15m from the edge, lowered all the equipment and got out to inspect the work area on foot. As he was walking around he found some cracks, and they were opening. As he stood there watching the whole area sloughed and took the dozer with it. That used one of his 9 lives up I can tell you.
Great story!
I was actually on the site when it happened, we had a maintenance contract on all the mining equipment there. Once he saw what was left of the tractor the operator was not compos mentis for quite some time afterwards, it shook him up badly the realization that proably no more than 30 seconds before it went over the wall he'd been sitting in the cab. I'm not sure he ever worked again truth be told. Screwed with his head too much.
Did you feel the earth shake? Musta been quite a site if someone witnessed this from below and the relief afterwards knowing that it was a ghosted.
We heard the bang from the workshop that must have been a mile or so away.
I'll have to find it, but I have a pic of a wall slide which moved an EX1800 around 60m.. lucky it happened not long after a blast and the pit was clear scary stuff
I think it will buff out....
Y'know those were the first words out of my mouth .... or something like "5 gallons of T-Cut will sort that out"