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Full Details

Surname
CUNNINGHAM
Forename
Andrew
Day
08
Month
09
Year
1900
Age
29
Occupation
Bottomer
Mine/Quarry Name
Oakley
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Oakley Collieries Ltd
Location
Oakley
County
Fifeshire
Details of Event
Deceased was bottomer at a midworking 11 fathoms above the bottom of the shaft. In putting the full hutch on to the cage at the midworking the empty hutch was derailed while in the cage and deceased was in the act of freeing it when the cage was lifted and he fell to the shaft bottom. A full hutch had been allowed to run too far at the bottom level and had got into the cage seat and the bottomer there fearing that the cage might come down on it signalled one to the engineman who mistook this signal for one from the midworking although it was sounded on a different bell. In any case the engineman should not have moved the cage from the midworking until his indicator showed that the gate there was closed.