Alert 14 – 17 Line-of-Fire Incident Results in Facial Injuries
Alert 14 – 17 Line-of-Fire Incident Results in Facial Injuries
WHAT HAPPENED:
The rig crew was attempting to manually latch a running tool onto the top of a tubing liner pump down hole. The crew installed a rod wheel onto the rod string. Employees, on the rig floor, held 10 to 15 turns of torque into the rod string with the wheel as the rod string was lifted. The running tool detached from the lock assembly thus causing the workers to lose their grip on the rod wheel. The release of torque caused the rod wheel to backspin in an uncontrolled manner. While spinning, the gate piece of the rod wheel broke away from the main body of the wheel and, struck a worker in the face, which resulted in major facial injuries.