New Search

Return to Search Results

Full Details

Surname
CRAWFORD
Forename
Thomas
Day
21
Month
03
Year
1939
Age
Occupation
Coal Stripper
Mine/Quarry Name
Aitken
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Fife Coal Co. Ltd
Location
Kelty
County
Fifeshire
Details of Event
21 March 1939: Thomas Crawford, 23, coal stripper, 111 Naysmith Place, Kelty, died in Dunfermline and West Fife Hospital yesterday as the result of injuries sustained on 21st March in an accident in No.2 Pit, Aitken Colliery, Kelty. Crawford was struck by a loaded hutch, and received a fracture of the spine. [Scotsman 5th April 1939] Compensation claim refused - On the ground that a fatal accident arose as the result of a breach of regulations, Sheriff Umpherston refused a claim for compensation in an action under the Workmen's compensation Act, in Dunfermline Sheriff Court yesterday. Claimant was the mother of Thomas Crawford, brusher, 111 Naysmith Place Kelty, who met with injuries which proved fatal by being caught or struck by a moving hutch on a haulage road in the Aitken pit, Kelty, belonging to the Fife Coal Company Ltd, who were sued for payment of £200 compensation. It was contended by respondents that Crawford, in travelling on the dook at the time he did, was in breach of an order made by them, and that he was injured when riding up the dook on a hutch, through being jammed between a girder and the hutch on which he was riding. His Lordship, refusing compensation and finding claimant liable to respondent in expenses, said it was argued that claimant was not debarred from obtaining compensation by the fact that Crawford was in breach of one or more regulations. He was clearly of the opinion, however, that Crawford's act had no purpose in furtherance of his employers, but was solely for his own purpose of saving himself the trouble of walking up a very steep incline. The death could not therefore be deemed to have arisen out of the employment. Apart from any regulation, statutory or otherwise, when Crawford stepped aside for the customary and recognised method of proceeding home by walking up the dook, and for a purpose in no way related to his employment or the a business or his employment, but for a purpose of his own, and rode upon a hutch, he deserted his employment for the time; he entered upon an adventure which had nothing to do with work. [Scotsman 18th November, 1939]