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Full Details

Surname
GRANVILLE
Forename
John
Day
08
Month
01
Year
1908
Age
39
Occupation
Loco. Fireman
Mine/Quarry Name
Hamsteels
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Owners of Hamsteels Colliery
Location
Esh Winning
County
Durham
Details of Event
Two 20-ton N.E.R. trucks were being filled with coal. They were standing on a road which dips about three-quarters of an inch per yard. They were brought down to the filling point by using the brakes of the second one; they were coupled together. At the filling point the truckman put down the two brakes of the first truck and put a chock under the wheels and then uncoupled the two trucks. The first truck having been about three parts filled, the truckman wished to lower it down a little, so he took out the chock; the truck then moved forward, and continued to move forward, in spite of the fact that both brakes were on. The truckman then put the chock in front of the wheels again, but it was knocked out; he put a sprag in a wheel, but it was broken. He then sat on one brake and a platelayer sat on the other but they could not stop the truck. The gradient averaged half-an-inch per yard only. The locomotive was pushing up a train of empty trucks from Flass Junction, and Granville was standing on the buffers between the first and second trucks, when the runaway truck came into collision with the train, and he was injured about the head. The runaway points were closed to allow of the empty train of trucks being pushed up from Flass Junction. The accident appears to have been due to the brakes on the N.E.R. truck being defective.