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Full Details

Surname
CURRY
Forename
Ralph
Day
09
Month
06
Year
1914
Age
29
Occupation
Brakesman
Mine/Quarry Name
Harraton
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Lambton & Hetton Collieries Ltd
Location
Harraton
County
Durham
Details of Event
Deceased was braking a self-acting gravity staple when the brake seized, owing to the brake-shaft bursting from its bearings. The brake lever handle was jerked violently upwards, striking deceased in the chest and lifting him to the roof, a height of about 7 feet 6 inches. He fell back upon a loaded tub, and was found lying dead across it with his skull fractured. One of the brasses from the shaft bearing was found close to him, and it is surmised that it had struck him on the head as it fell. There was nothing to account for the brake-shaft bursting from the pedestal, except that some short time previously the cages in the staple had been amain, and it is probable that the upcoming cage struck the drum and brake-gear violently and caused a fracture in the pedestal corer. The shock of the application of the brake on this run, which was the first one after putting the staple right, was more than the fractured cover could stand, so that the shaft came out of place. The drum and all the apparatus connected with it ought to have been carefully examined before any further work was done with it.