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Full Details

Surname
PEARSON
Forename
Richard
Day
11
Month
01
Year
1908
Age
56
Occupation
Shunter
Mine/Quarry Name
Brancepeth
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Strakers & Love
Location
Willington
County
Durham
Details of Event
The duties of Pearson were to attend to the foot of an incline, to see the runaway switches, &c., were in good order, and to see that the trucks were properly coupled together. At about 11.15am he was following his employment, which he had done for 35 years, when he noticed that the set was running amain; he immediately took steps to warn everybody. He, it appears, stood close behind his cabin to watch where the set went to. Everyone near to ran for shelter. The trucks were broken to matchwood, and the road torn up. He was found leaning against a post which had been struck by something from the broken trucks; he also had been struck in a similar manner. His skull was fractured and his neck broken. The cause of the trucks running amain was a pin falling from a shackle, thus releasing the link and setting free the trucks. The pin was an ordinary one-inch pin, with a head at one end and riveted over a washer at the other end. The washer had become loose and had worn the rivet away, finally allowing it to escape. There were two pairs of runaway switches at the foot of the incline, but the set appears to have gone at such a high speed that it jumped each of these switches.