Single Record

Full Details

Details of Event: The accident occurred in the main haulage road, which is also one of the main return airways. He had charged a shot hole with roburite and intended to fire it by attaching short lengths of cable from the shot to the electric haulage signal wires and also from these signal wires to his high tension magneto battery as the cable he had with him was about 3 yards too short to reach to a cabin from which he intended to fire the shot. The electric current was supposed to he switched off the signal wires, but the deceased did not ascertain whether this was so or not. He attached the short lengths of cable at the shot end and then instructed a man to attach the other ends to the signal wires. Immediately he did so the shot was fired. The deceased was standing close to the shot, and was so seriously injured that he died the following day. It transpired that the current was not switched off the electric signal wires. The man in charge of the haulage said he had switched it off 6.5 hours before the accident occurred, and since that time there had been no necessity to use it; the switch was not under lock and key and someone may have switched it on. The manager promised that in future the switch would be placed in a locked box, and an official made responsible for switching the current off each day when the haulage machinery ceases work.