The Resources Regulator in NSW has launched an investigation into a serious incident at Ridgeway Gold Mine, Orange on 10 July 2024 between a worker and a vehicle.
A service crew worker was seriously injured while walking in a decline when the bucket from a moving loader hit him.
The worker was assessing the water level and lift pump to allow a loader access to bog mud out of the sump area.
The driver parked in the 4750 West Collection Access road as the other worker proceeded on foot down a slope in the decline towards a sump to lower a barricade chain to provide the loader to access the sump.
Neither the driver nor the worker used positive communications to inform the loader operator that a pedestrian was in the decline. The loader operator drove the loader down the decline towards the sump with the intention of parking the machine nearby before commencing bogging.
The loader proceeded around a bend in the decline and down the slope where it hit the pedestrian with the bottom lip of the loader’s bucket coming into contact with his lower leg.
The loader operator stopped when he noticed a cap lamp beam and exited the operator’s cabin to investigate its source, then discovering the injured worker lying on the ground.
Read the Investigation Information Release (PDF, 754.29 KB).
