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Full Details

Surname
IZATT
Forename
John Finnie Blyth
Day
25
Month
11
Year
1935
Age
Occupation
Screening plant attendant
Mine/Quarry Name
Bowhill
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Fife Coal Co. Ltd
Location
Auchterderran
County
Fifeshire
Details of Event
25 November 1935: Pithead Fatality - Machinery Control Method – Criticism At Fife Inquiry - A system of dual control of pithead machinery was criticised at an inquiry at Dunfermline yesterday into the death of John Finnie Blyth Izatt, colliery screening plant attendant, 2 Bottom West Cottages, Bowhill, who died on November 25 at the screening plant at Bowhill colliery, of the Fife Coal Company (Ltd.), from injuries caused by his being crushed by one of the tippers when he was repairing it. It was explained in evidence that the tipper was a large drum in which hutches of coal were rotated. The machine could be actuated by a worker at the screening tables and also by the waggon trimmers underneath. The tipper had been stopped by a pithead worker to allow Izatt to make a small repair, and after he had entered the tipper it was again set in motion by the other control, and Izatt was fatally injured. John Clark the manager of the colliery, stated that there had been no accidents previously owing to the dual operation of the controls. He said that if the tipper had been left in the normal position it would have remained stationary all the time supposing either of the controls had started. He thought Izatt made an error of judgement in the way he went about the job. Mr Robert Shirkie of the Scottish colliery Engine and Boilermen's Association, who appeared for the representatives of the deceased asked the jury to find that the system of independent dual control was not safe. Sheriff-Substitute Umpherston, asking the jury whether they desired to add anything to their formal verdict, said that Mr Shirkie had suggested that they should condemn the system of working at the place. His Lordship did not think it would be necessary to go so far as that, but the jury might say that they were of opinion that the system by which the tippers could be started or stopped by two people at different places independently of each other, and without the one being cognisant of what the other was doing, was prima facie unsatisfactory. The jury acquiesced in his Lordship's suggestion. [Scotsman 20 December 1935]