Single Record

Full Details

Surname

KING

Forename

James

Day

25

Month

01

Year

1927

Age

Occupation

Miner

Mine/Quarry Name

Carberry

Mineral Worked

Coal

Owner

Edinburgh Collieries Co. Ltd

Location

Whitecraig

County

Edinburghshire

Details of Event

25 January 1927: Fatal Accident In Carberry Colliery – James King, an unmarried miner, residing at Deantown, near Musselburgh, received such injuries by being crushed by a rake of coal hutches in Carberry Colliery that he died later in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. [Scotsman 26 January 1927] Information from the Inspectors of Mines - 1927: Underground Haulage Accident: At Carberry Colliery, Edinburgh, on 25th January, a bencher at the bottom of a short single tub self-acting incline of inclination 1 in 4 was killed by an empty tub which ran away. The cause of the runaway was the crude fastening of the wheel or pulley at the top of this incline. This pulley, 11 in. diameter, lay in a half bow or muzzle with a 4 in. opening, the bow being anchored to a prop. The axle pin of the pulley was a bolt 12 in. long without cotter pin or nut: the pin was formerly used with the square head on the floor so that it could neither work up nor drop out, the wheel being anchored a short distance clear of the floor. For some reason the roadsman who looked after these pulleys turned the axle pin to be head up four days before the accident, and he was known to have been working about it a few minutes prior to what happened. The pin worked out and a loaded tub and an empty tub ran away. If a pulley of the Oldham type had been used, or if a complete bow instead of a half bow had been used with the existing pulley, or if there had been a cotter pin in the existing axle pin, or if there had been a safety prop in front of the existing pulley, the accident could not have occurred.