| 08/10/2003 |
A worker dislocated his left thumb and sustained tendon damage pulling on his boots in the pithead baths prior to starting his shift, and was detained in hospital for over 24 hours |
| 26/10/2003 |
A worker sustained foot injuries when an RH45 operator inadvertently lowered the apron onto his foot, crushing it. He was detained in hospital over 24 hrs. |
| 14/10/2003 |
A command supervisor travelling alone sustained a fractured wrist and friction burns when he attempted to cut off a 'stringer' from a top idler roller. His hand was apparently drawn into the nip point between a moving mineral conveyor and the idler and was trapped at the wrist. He stopped the conveyor by reaching the emergency pull-wire but was unable to release himself. He was eventually found by a belt contractor and freed. |
| 30/10/2003 |
A contractor drilling rock bolt holes in the roof fractured his right thumb when a falling stone struck his gloved hand, which was resting on the boring machine. They had cut away some of the mesh lagging the passively supported roadway to gain access for drilling. The drill became fast in one of the holes and the injured person and his workmate tried to shake it free but dislodged a small stone. He was detained in hospital for more than 24 hours. |
| 04/11/2003 |
In the pit bottom of a large mine a general worker sustained a fracture to his right foot while helping to remove a water trap, which weighed 50kg, from a pipe range. As the water trap was freed the workers lost control while lowering it to the floor and it toppled over onto the injured person's foot. |
| 29/10/2003 |
A miner working alone on a drilling machine installing rock bolts tripped over a lump of mineral and sustained a fracture of the 5th metatarsal right foot. |
| 03/10/2003 |
In the underground workshop at a large mine a contract fitter dislocated his knee when an electric motor suspended from an overhead crane slipped through its chain sling. The forklift truck normally used to remove a motor from a recessed housing in a continuous miner (CM) could not gain access due to removed and replacement parts on the floor around the CM. |
| 04/11/2003 |
On a longwall retreat face being prepared for salvage a face worker fractured a bone in his left cheek while installing rock bolts working on the face side of the armoured flexible conveyor. A section of the face fell and dislodged one of the temporary support props, which struck him. |
| 19/11/2003 |
An experienced development worker sustained crush injuries to the middle finger of his left hand that resulted in surgical amputation to below the top joint, when he was struck by a fall of face in a coal heading. He was trying to free a mesh panel that was hooked on the picks of the continuous miner, which had been advanced to the face to be used as a working platform, when the fall occurred. |
| 29/11/2003 |
While lifting a gearbox onto a bed frame on the surface of a large mine, a fitter trapped his hand when the gearbox moved inadvertently as he was cleaning the mountings. He required skin grafts and was detained in hospital for over 24 hours. |
| 24/11/2003 |
An experienced mineworker, helping to prepare a 2m high longwall retreat for salvage, was holding a mesh panel to the roof of the stand-off cut area when his colleague lost control of the drilling machine as he spun a rock bolt into a roof hole. The machine spun round and the control handle struck the injured person's chest and caused injuries that led to his detention in hospital for more than 24 hours |
| 29/11/2003 |
A surface worker fell 1.8m from a tower scaffold within the locker area of a pit head baths whilst engaged in painting. He was rendered unconscious for about five minutes and sustained a fracture to his left elbow. He was apparently working off a single plank that dislodged as he attempted to get off the scaffold. |
| 12/12/2003 |
At the main gate end of a 2.2m section longwall face a face worker was removing a pin from the clevis rail, so that he could move the clevis bracket to bring the main gate powered roof supports back into alignment with the main gate, when the pin moved unexpectedly. Despite him wearing safety gloves it lacerated his right hand and he was subsequently detained in hospital for more than 24 hours. |
| 18/11/2003 |
A dangerous occurrence and two major injury accidents occurred during a single incident on the surface of a large miscellaneous mine. Hauliers had delivered a 10.25T alternator to an independently owned and operated power station that was within the mine curtilage. The positioning of the alternator at the rear of the articulated trailer prevented it being unloaded using the crane mounted on the tractor unit of the delivery vehicle. The driver detached the tractor unit, positioned it alongside the trailer and then attempted to reposition the alternator on the trailer bed. The stabilisers had not been fully deployed and the tractor unit overturned, trapping the driver for 1.5 hours before the Fire Brigade released him. He sustained two broken ribs and lacerations. Also a mine fitter broke a bone in his hand whilst operating a valve to release the gas suspension on the trailer axle. |
| 17/12/2003 |
At the end of his shift a general underground worker fractured his right leg and ankle at the pithead of the manriding shaft when he was knocked over as the group of workers he was with jostled to get to the swipe card readers. |
| 12/12/2003 |
While engaged on repair work at a large miscellaneous mine in an outbye roadway that needed additional support, a contractor's foreman miner fractured his left foot when a 600mm × 200mm × 150mm stone fell from the 3.5m high roof and struck him. He and a colleague had dressed down loose material from the roof, positioned a roof strap, drilled three roof holes and inserted three bolts. The injured person had set the stinger leg to drill the fourth hole but the drill steel did not line up with the hole in the strap, so he lowered the stinger leg to reposition the drill and the stone immediately above the stinger fell. |
| 18/12/2003 |
A chargehand fitter sustained crush injuries to his right middle finger, resulting in surgical amputation of the tip, while undertaking maintenance work on an underground chain conveyor. He was advancing the chain using a spanner on a hexagonal spigot on the gearbox, and to gain more leverage reached onto the fluid coupling housing. The cover to the access port was missing, his fingers were inside the fluid coupling housing as he turned the gearbox, and the fusible plug trapped his finger as the fluid coupling rotated |
| 13/12/2003 |
On the surface of a tourist mine a member of the public slipped while descending steps cut into a hillside on a cold and frosty day. She fell and broke her left ankle in two places. |
| 23/12/2003 |
A contractor's development worker working at the roadhead of coal and stone heading sustained fractured ribs when struck by a 1.2m × 0.6m × 0.3m stone which detached from the rib side and fell through a gap between the face side mesh and the rib mesh forming the roadhead 'cage'. The gap resulted from a wider extraction than normal to form an overcast, exacerbated by non-vertical cutting forming an overhang on the driver's blind side. |
