Lacerated wound and fracture of the knee
- Safety Flash
- Published on 1 January 2002
- Generated on 19 November 2025
- IMCA SF 01/02
- 2 minute read
We have been notified of the following incident in the drilling sector.
What happened?
An assistant driller and others were trying to lift the balancing frame to ‘guide line’ with the aid of a tugger winch, so that it could be lowered to the well head. Because the frame winch wasn’t in a proper balance position, the assistant driller tried to adjust the sling for lifting. When he had just finished shackling the frame to the winch sling, the balancing frame fell backward onto his right knee. The photos allow a better understanding of the accident.
The injured person had not observed that there was no tension on the sling that he shackled to the frame before carrying out the adjustment on the sling. He probably failed to signal to the winch operator to pick up and tension the sling.
The assistant driller suffered a lacerated wound on the lateral side of his right leg and a fracture of the knee.
The company involved has noted the following corrective actions:
- Riggers on board to be properly trained.
- Activity to be planned with proper toolbox meetings and job safety analysis, as this helps avoid this kind of incident occurring in the future.
- Improve communication between operator involved in the operation.
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