A union has put a blanket ban on the use of all ultra high-pressure water hoses across the state after the death of Woonona man Setaleki Kolomaka at Port Kembla steelworks last week.
The ban comes as the Mercury learnt that a Bulli man employed by the same company, Veolia Environmental Services, had a similar accident - though not fatal - with a high-pressure hose in Nowra in 2005.
Mr Kolomaka, 39, died after he was hit in the chest by an ultra high-pressure stream of water while cleaning a catchment sump at BlueScope's Springhill site last Thursday.
Wollongong Police Inspector Mark Lavers said Mr Kolomaka lost control of the hose while breaking up sediment at the bottom of a large pit in an area known as the 21 Dump.
"His colleague was standing 5m to 7m behind him controlling the water flow by a foot-activated pedal," Insp Lavers said.
The hose was fed by a high-pressure truck and was connected to a stainless steel lance that was held by Mr Kolomaka to control the direction of the water.
The pressure of the water was 10,000psi (pounds per square inch) - strong enough to cut through wood and concrete.
West Australian safety consultant Bob Mulligan, a former mine inspector and a member of the Mineral Drilling Association of Australia, believes the lance should have been mounted or fixed in place and that the person holding the hose should have been operating the pedal.
"If they are using big hoses with that sort of pressure, they need to have some sort of method of securing that hose rather than just having someone hanging onto the end of it," Mr Mulligan said.
"Also, if there is a foot pedal, it should have been the guy who was holding the hose that had his foot on it, rather than somebody else, because if you fall over or whatever, your foot is going to come off the pedal and shut the pressure off instantly. But if someone else has their foot on the pedal and something goes wrong, it may take them a second or two to react ... that is basically all that it takes for an injury to occur."
Australian Workers' Union Port Kembla branch secretary Andy Gillespie said that until design alterations were made to the equipment, workers would not be using the hose.
"We have banned it with all our members across the state," Mr Gillespie said.
"They are not allowed to operate any more equipment until we can absolutely guarantee that this doesn't happen again and until there are alterations to the configuration of how it is done."
Mr Gillespie said the union had been in discussions with WorkCover, which manages workplace safety in NSW, to amend the design of the water blaster.
After the 2005 incident, 16 recommendations were made to improve safety in the workplace, including the installation of an anti-withdrawal device, a safety or stop pedal and a working platform so that the hose user could also be in charge of the control pedal.
It was also recommended that employees using high-pressure water devices wear a chest shield.
Veolia would not comment on whether any of those recommendations had been implemented.
WorkCover general manager, occupational health and safety division, John Watson said that under the OH&S Act it was employers' duty to provide a safe place of work but there was no legislation for individual items in the workplace such as a high-pressure hose.
"The employer needs to carry out a risk assessment associated with the use of equipment in a workplace and include things like high-pressure hoses ... and ensure that those things are in place."
But the Australian Workers' Union national director of occupational health and safety Dr Yossi Berger said industry relied too heavily on "risk assessment" and paperwork rather than simply installing safety devices.
"It is not so much that they think that what equipment they have got is the safest but rather they think problems are caused by human behaviour in systems and that risk assessments will save the day," Dr Berger said.
"There is a huge confusion in Australia in believing that some form of risk assessment and hazard identification - in other words paperwork - will fix the system."
WorkCover and Wollongong Police are preparing reports for the coroner.
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