Lockout-Tagout

Lockout Training Prevents Deadly Accidents

OSHA requires authorized and affected employees to be properly trained in lockout/tagout requirements and procedures. Do your employees have the knowledge they need to prevent deadly accidents?

Here’s a true story excerpted from BLR’s Interactive CD: Lockout/Tagout that dramatically illustrates to employees why lockout/tagout is so important.

Laundry Worker Fatally Injured

A laundry worker propped a dryer door open with a piece of wood and entered the drum to scrape off melted plastic. A light on the control panel (activated by the open door) indicated that the dryer was out of service.

Two fatal mistakes followed.

First, the worker failed to shut down or lock out the dryer before entering it.

Next, another worker misinterpreted the indicator light and restarted the system. The overhead conveyor delivered a 200-pound load of laundry into the dryer. This knocked out the door prop, trapped the worker inside, and automatically started 6 minutes of tumbling and 225°F hot air blasts.

The employee was killed.

How can fatal mistakes like these be avoided?

BLR’s Interactive CD: Lockout/Tagout tells your employees how.


Need to do lockout/tagout training? Have little time to do it? Students train themselves with BLR’s Interactive CD: Lockout/Tagout computer-based program. Try it at no cost! Learn more.


Recycling Worker Suffers Severe Injuries

Here’s another example of an accident that could have been prevented had the employee been properly trained.

At the county recycling center, cardboard pieces are dropped into a baler chute by a 20-foot-long belt conveyor. A photoelectric sensor on the side of the baler feed hopper senses an incoming load and automatically activates the ram to compress the cardboard. Once a bale is completed, the operator switches to manual operation, ties the bale, and has it removed.

On one occasion, the cardboard jammed at the feed chute. The worker shut down the conveyor, but not the baler. He climbed on the conveyor and used his feet to push the jam free. When the jam cleared, he slid down into the baling chamber, activating the photoelectric sensor. The ram automatically advanced and caught his foot, pulling him back in, and severely injuring his legs.

How could this accident have been prevented? Interactive CD: Lockout/Tagout tells your employees how.


Try Interactive CD Course: Lockout/Tagout with your own employees at no cost or risk. Read more.


Training Key to Accident Prevention

All unexpected start-up and related machine accidents can be prevented if employees understand and follow lockout/tagout rules whenever they service equipment, clear jams, or perform repairs. That’s why OSHA requires you to train both authorized and affected employees.

Not only does BLR’s Interactive CD Course: Lockout/Tagout teach your workers what they need to know about lockout/tagout, it also engages them in the learning process through thought-provoking questions and interactive exercises.

For example, at one point the course asks trainees to consider how they would feel if they inadvertently reenergized equipment and caused the death of a co-worker. It notes such emotionally painful consequences as:

  • Talking with the police
  • Talking to co-workers just after the accident
  • Telling your family members what happened
  • Going to the victim’s memorial service and seeing the victim’s family
  • Going to therapy or counseling

Those are the kinds of resonating lessons that employees don’t soon forget. The program also presents these other advantages:

  • Practical CD-ROM format. Employees train at their own pace, with no need for a fast Internet connection.
  • Effective training on all OSHA-specified mandatory concepts. Proper entry permit procedures, rescue techniques, and required PPE, among others, are covered.
  • Individual CBT training. No need to actively supervise the learning, freeing your time for other activities.

Because computer-based training has to be experienced to be appreciated, we’ve arranged for you to try the program in your own workplace, with your own people, at no cost for up to 30 days before deciding whether to purchase. If it’s not for you, we’ll pay for its return.

Just click here, and we’ll be happy to set things up.

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3 thoughts on “Lockout Training Prevents Deadly Accidents”

  1. There may be only a few occasions when team lifting is necessary. But if your workers know the rules for team lifting, they’ll be able to move big, awkward loads more easily—and more safely.

  2. In an emergency your workers have to respond fast and effectively. There’s no time for second-guessing or asking questions. Employees must be properly trained in emergency response long before the day they have to act.

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