Accidents for Period Start:

03/01/2002

A loco driver, assisting an electrician to salvage 3.3 kV cable from a loco roadway, suffered fractured bones in his left foot when struck by a pummel end that dropped some 3.5m.  As they passed the cable over others slung from the roof of a junction, so that they could drop it to the floor, the pummel became fast.  To release it, the injured person used a provided tool to push it over other cables.  He had identified the risk of the pummel falling and his adopted control measure was to jump out of the way as it fell, but he caught his foot under the rail at a set of points that were packed up off the floor.

05/01/2002

At a large coal mine an experienced locomotive driver suffered fracture of two metatarsals on his left foot when a 100mm diameter 3.9m long pipe fell off a flat vehicle and struck him.   At the time of the accident he was assisting three others to load salvaged pipes in the tailgate of a retreating face. Two workmen were lifting the pipes onto the low loader and the injured person and another were stacking them. Using two link-lock timbers, positioned at either end of the vehicle, they had loaded a base row of five pipes, the outer pipe being located in the cutout.   They had then stacked a second row of four pipes on top of the pipes in the first row.  They were lifting the third pipe of the third row when one of the outer pipes in the second row dislodged and fell striking the injured person.

11/01/2002

The manager of a large storage mine sustained a fractured femur when struck by an electric buggy being driven by a trainee.  The manager was training a group of new underground workers in the operation of a small electric storage battery powered golf buggy being introduced into the mine for personnel transport.  Two cycles of training had been completed without incident but on the third cycle the new driver appears to have trapped the accelerator pedal to the floor with the vehicle in reverse. The buggy hurtled backwards, striking the manager in the thigh and pinning him against a wire mesh fence.

15/01/2002

In a mechanised development roadway driven by a continuous miner fitted with on board bolting rigs, a fitter suffered a penetration injury to his left eye while alighting from the machine.  His foot slipped on the drilling platform and he fell striking his eye against the rib bolt as he fell.

18/01/2002

At a large coal mine a workman, who was part of a team replacing conveyor structure, suffered a fracture of the right rib when he stumbled over a ventilation duct previously discarded under the belt line and fell against the newly installed structure.  The IP was carrying a conveyor side iron at the time. The IP completed his shift, reported to the surface medical centre and was referred to hospital. The injury was diagnosed by clinical assessment, no x-ray taken.

22/01/2002

Within the main lateral roadway of a large coal mine, in an unwitnessed accident, a contractor electrician sustained superficial cuts to his face and a fracture of the wrist when he stumbled and fell whilst walking along the roadway tracing transmission cables that were routed along the roof.  The roadway where the accident occurred was on a 1:6 grade but otherwise normal, free from obstructions.

23/01/2002

At the face of room and pillar workings in an Oolitic Limestone mine being undercut by an electric arc wall cutter a piece of stone approximately 1000mm2 and 150mm thick peeled off the face immediately above the cut striking the IP above the ankle causing a fracture to his lower leg.  Whilst there was no apparent faulting in the face, the method of splitting stone blocks using wedges can leave planes of weakness in the immediate skin of the face.

23/01/2002

A fitter suffered a fracture to a bone in his left hand whilst removing a clevis bolt from a powered roof support that had been salvaged from an adjacent face. The clevis bolt was tight and, as the injured person used a hammer to slacken it the hammer caught the spill plate and he struck his hand.  He completed the shift and the injury was diagnosed 8 days later after attending hospital.

31/01/2002

A charge hand welder, contracted to perform major overhaul on a continuous miner below ground in a non-coal mine, suffered the traumatic amputation of the tip of his right thumb when it became trapped between a new track wear strip and the track frame. A lift truck was holding the strip, which weighed approximately one tonne, at the right height while it was jacked forwards to locate to the track frame. The injured person was observing the front-end spigot about to engage in its locating recess, and stood with his hand on the strip with his thumb above.  As the spigot engaged, stored energy in the lift truck forks forced the strip upwards trapping his thumb.

26/02/2002

An experienced locomotive shunter suffered crush injuries to his left hand, including a fractured finger that resulted in his detention in hospital for more than 24 hours, when he trapped it in a set of air doors he was closing after a locomotive had passed through.  The air pressure on the doors was not excessive.

01/03/2002

An electrician suffered crush injuries to his left hand which resulted in his detention in hospital for more than 24 hours when he was struck by the untethered loose end of a 1¼" delivery hose forming part of a cavity filling system on a coalface being prepared for salvage.  The hose was being flushed after a blockage by applying to it the 2500psi powered support line pressure.   The injured person was acting as sentry at the discharge end.

16/03/2002

A contract slurry tanker driver working on the surface of a coal mine suffered a fractured jaw when he was struck on the side of the face by the 1000psi washing down hose he was using to swill slurry into a sump, prior to collection by a vacuum tanker.  He failed to control the hose as it started to flail as pressure was applied. 

19/03/2002

At a large coal mine a locomotive driver, redeployed to assist three others in cross levelling a double deck conveyor, suffered a fractured nose when the chain from the 1 tonne blocks slipped off the structure and struck him on the nose.