What happened?
A staff member sustained serious harm injuries when a fence was being upgraded. A strainer post broke, flew out of the ground and struck him in the face.
Why did it happen?
Two staff members were upgrading a fence from a five wire fence, to a ten wire fence, to make it stock proof. Under tension the strainer post broke below ground level, flew out of the ground, impacted and injured the face of one of the employees.
Key lessons and Discussion Points
- Lesson 1. The work team had planned the job before starting and conducted a visual check but couldn’t see the strainer post was potentially unable to take the additional strain.
- Discussion 1. Discuss what could go wrong on a fencing job and how fencers can conduct ‘pre-start’ checks for the job.
- Lesson 2. The end assembly strainer post is the most important part of any fence. If it’s weak, the whole job is at risk.
- Discussion 2. Discuss what a good strainer post looks like, what could cause one to break and how you could identify weakness.
- Lesson 3. In this incident the team responded really well to the injury, getting the employee to a medical facility quickly.
- Discussion 3. Discuss how a fencer could beinjured and how they (or the team) would react to a serious injury.
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