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Details of Event: Deceased was hewing alone in the fore shift in a bord 19.5 feet wide in the Bensham seam, 4 feet 7 inches thick, in the 3rd West flat, South Bensham district of the C pit. He had bared a lie over sooty back more than half-way across the place from the left side in the lower part of the seam, and he had also pricked it near the floor on the right side where he had fixed a stay against the coal. On the left side the top coal projected about 2.5 feet over the back and was an evident source of danger, as the parting above is a good one. In front of this coal a piece of band, about 3.5 feet long by 1.5 feet wide and 7 inches thick, lay on the floor, and deceased may have been moving this preparatory to bringing down the projecting coal when it fell over and crushed his head on the band. The coal in falling does not appear to have displaced any stay, but it knocked out a prop set close to the face about the middle of the place. The place was well timbered so far as the roof was concerned, and there was a good supply of loose timber close at hand. Deceased was found by the putter who summoned the deputy who had only left the place a few minutes before, but who did not appear to have insisted on the necessary precautions with regard to the projecting coal. The Local Inspectors reported, ‘In our opinion it was a pure accident.'