Moving cargo for shipment or storage as well as transporting materials during the production process in our modern times forces many workers in Indiana and Illinois to work alongside sophisticated industrial conveyor belt systems. This is true for our transportation needs, such as maritime workers needing to move cargo from ships to trains or trucks or storage areas. Warehousing facilities also need conveyor belts to move large and heavy and cumbersome products either for storage or for loading. Factory facilities, such as our mines and steel mills, need these conveyor systems to take components through the manufacturing process. It’s even possible to find conveyors in use on large commercial construction projects here in Illinois and Indiana.
Sadly, these vital pieces of industrial equipment bring with them a great risk of serious injury or even death to those who are required to work with them.
Industrial conveyor belt accidents are a threat to safety that workers need to understand alongside a recognition that they may not be able to rely upon their employer (and others with a duty of care) to keep them safe from harm on the job.
What are Industrial Conveyor Belt Systems?
There is much more to an industrial conveyor belt system than a simple belt with a motor. These are complicated systems built by specialists according to engineering design specifications targeting the needs of each particular industry. Even the simplest conveyor will have a frame, a belt, a series of rollers or wheels, and a power source.
All conveyors are configured to fit the needs of the worksite. There are different types of industrial conveyor systems. The efficiency and speed of moving materials or goods will be a primary concern. However, it is paramount that during planning and installation, as well as inspection, upkeep, maintenance, and repair the need to keep people safe from harm on the conveyor belt line remains a focus to everyone on the job site.
Workers in Indiana or Illinois, employed in places like aerospace, airline, or automotive manufacturing facilities; bottling plants; food processing plants; ports; steel mills; trucking loading docks; and Amazon or John Deere warehouses may be asked to work with any one or more of the following industrial conveyor belt systems:
- Ball Transfer
- Belt
- Bucket
- Chute
- Drag, Chain, and Tow
- Magnetic
- Overhead
- Pneumatic and Vacuum
- Powered Rollers
- Roller
- Screw and Auger
- Singulation Conveyor
- Vertical
- Vibrating
- Walking Beam
- Wheel.
Industrial Conveyor Belt Injuries: Catastrophic or Deadly
Studies show that severe or fatal accidents on the job involving a conveyor happen when things are busy and the conveyor belt is failing to run smoothly. Either it has completely stopped (like in a jam) or it is moving too slow and things are piling up. Sometimes, injuries are the result of accidents during repair or maintenance of the system.
Regardless of the type of industrial conveyor belt system or the industrial work being done, the same types of hazards are known to face workers who are near to any type of conveyor. Employers as well as system designers, manufacturers, servicing companies, and others in control of aspects of the worksite, are well aware of these risks of bodily injury and their corresponding duties of care and safety.
Industrial conveyor belt accidents in Illinois or Indiana are often life-altering and catastrophic. They include:
- Amputations of finger or fingers
- Amputation of hand
- Amputation of arm
- Crushing injuries to hands, arms, body
- Cuts, Scars, or Disfigurement of Face, Hands, Extremities
- Electrical burns
- Electrocution
- Permanent Nervous System Damage
- Spinal Cord Injuries
- Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI)
- Whiplash or Permanent Neck Injuries
- Lifelong Pain and Suffering Due to Injury Neurological Trauma.
Accordingly, they are regulated by federal statute as overseen by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) (29 CFR §1926.555) as well as industrial standards defined by the American National Standards Institute (“ANSI”) (ASME B20.1-2021).
Causes of Conveyor Belt Accidents: Workers Owed a Duty of Care and Safety
On every industrial workplace in Indiana and Illinois, not only the employer but others with power or control over aspects of the jobsite, such as the maintenance crew, will have legal duties of care and safety to protect workers from conveyor system hazards. There are also legal duties of care involved in anyone involved in the design and installation of the industrial conveyor belt on the site.
These duties of care and safety are important and failure to comply with them either through ignorance, negligence, or willful disregard, can result in the worker having legal injury claims against those who can be shown to have caused any part or portion of the incident.
Duties of care and safety for all industrial conveyor belt systems in all worksites include:
- Proper planning and design of the system for its intended purpose on the site
- Proper installation of the conveyor belt system and its parts
- Routine upkeep and maintenance plan for all conveyors on the property
- Hiring of component and reliable company to service the workplace conveyor systems
- Hiring and training of supervisors on system operations with ability to stop work or shut down the conveyor if there is a potential risk of harm or malfunction
- System safeguards installed to halt work or turn off power in face of potential danger or risk
- On-site warning signs, lights, and alarms regarding conveyor system operations
- Training of all workers who will work with, or near, any conveyor belt system, in use
- Training of all workers who will work with, or near, any conveyor belt system, with signs of imminent risk of harm
- Providing all workers who will work with, or near, any conveyor belt system with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Routine inspections of all conveyor belt systems before powered for use
- Program for warning workers and workplace of any conveyor system hazard or danger
- Appropriate lockout or tagout procedures for conveyor belt systems.
For more, read:
- Lockout Tagout Accidents in Indiana and Illinois: Employer Liability
- Machine Guarding: Serious Industrial Work Accidents Caused by Moving Machine Parts
- Workplace Housekeeping and Serious Accidents on the Job: Duty of Care
- Dangerous Work Site: Your Right to Stop Work to Avoid Injury or Death.
Injury Claims After Industrial Conveyor Belt Accident on the Job in Illinois or Indiana
Whenever a worker is seriously hurt or killed on the job site in a tragic accident, state laws come into play that allow for avenues to justice on behalf of that accident victim as well as their grieving loved ones (e.g., spouse, children). In some situations, federal laws may apply as for example in some of our local maritime accidents. Read, Work Injuries and On-the-Job Accidents in Indiana and Illinois With Federal Law Protections: FELA, Jones Act, LHWCA, DBA.
Both Indiana and Illinois provide workers’ compensation relief after workplace accidents. In some situations, investigation into an industrial conveyor belt accident may find that other parties are legally liable for injury claims. As an example, these may include product liability claims based upon defective design of the system or its component parts, or negligence claims based upon incorrect assembly during installation or repair.
Each industrial conveyor belt accident victim deserves to have an independent investigation and analysis of the event which may include accident reconstruction experts deep diving into the facts of the particular case to find all the reasons for the accident.
For more, see:
- Amputation Injuries from On-the-Job Work Accidents in Indiana or Illinois
- Catastrophic Injury Accidents: Special Legal Protections for Victims and Families in Indiana and Illinois
- Industrial Accidents: Electricity Hazards on the Job
- Five Deadly Workplace Dangers in Warehousing and Industrial Storage Facilities
- Shutdown, Turnaround, or Outage (STO) Accidents in Indiana and Illinois.
If you or someone you love works on or near an industrial conveyor belt system, then it is vital to know both its inherent risks and dangers as well as the duties of care and safety owed by law to all workers in that jobsite. Conveyors cause too many permanent injuries and worker deaths! Please be careful out there!
