Worker Overconfidence

Copper concentrate exited the dryers on a conveyor belt and emptied into rail cars twenty-four hours a day. A worker positioned the rail cars for loading, and when the rail car was loaded, he moved it to a rail siding. An electric cable winch was used to start the car rolling and, after a small tug, the loaded car moved by inertia to link or couple with the previous loaded car. Loaded cars, all coupled together, were positioned on a rail siding a short distance from the concentrate driers. Loaded cars were picked up once a day by the locomotives and transported to the port of Ilo.

This worker had more than fifteen years of experience at moving cars into position by using the electrical cable winch to give the newly loaded car the inertia to couple to the previous car. This day, doing the job he had done every day for so long, he stepped between two loaded rail cars that were slowly moving toward each other to be coupled. The worker darted between the moving rail cars confident that he could perform this dangerous act. He was caught between the two cars, and as the male and female connectors coupled, the worker was severed in half at the waist. He died minutes later.

In 1975, mine fatalities were considered inevitable. Today, the goal of zero fatal accidents shows a significant change in mine safety attitude.

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