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Full Details

Surname
SMITH
Forename
Robert
Day
02
Month
08
Year
1928
Age
Occupation
Mine/Quarry Name
Minto
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
Lochgelly Iron & Coal Co. Ltd
Location
Lochgelly
County
Fifeshire
Details of Event
2 August 1928: Lochgelly Miner Killed - Robert Smith, a young man working underground at Minto Colliery, between Cardenden and Lochgelly, was caught by a rake of hutches and so severely crushed that death was instantaneous. He resided in New Minto Street, Lochgelly, and leaves a widow and two of a family. [Dunfermline Journal 11 August 1928] In Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Thursday, Sheriff Umpherston and a mixed jury inquired into the circumstances attending the deaths of eleven fatal accidents that occurred in West Fife. The inquiries were conducted by Mr H. J. Waugh, Procurator Fiscal. Crushed By Hutches - A formal verdict was returned in the case of Robert Smith, haulage contractor, 56 Russell Street, Lochgelly, who died on 2nd August 1928, on the haulage road of No 2 Dook of No 2 Pit of Minto Colliery, Cardenden, of the Lochgelly Iron and Coal Company, from the effects of injuries sustained by being crushed between a stationary rake and a runaway rake of loaded hutches. John Fisher, pit oversman, Desmond Cottages, Jamphlars, Cardenden, said that Smith was working in a very steep seam about 300 yards long with a gradient of 1 in 3. There had been a wreck in the road, and the accident, which occurred about 8 o'clock in the morning, took place while they were getting the road put into order. Deceased had attached the hutches in hutches of three in a row with clips to the haulage rope. The second row of hutches ran back and jammed Smith. The accident was due to the slipping of the clip on the rope. The clip was of the screw wheel type, and Smith, assisted by another man, was responsible for the securing of the clips. After the accident he looked at the clip and thought that it had not been tightened as hard as it might have been. David Swan, mining contractor, 63 Russell Street, Lochgelly, spoke to helping to clear the road off the wrecked hutches, a job in which Smith was also employed. They had got the hutches on the rails when the middle rake ran away. It was Smith that attached the hutches to the rope, and both he and Smith tightened the clip. They both thought the clip was sufficiently tight to hold, in fact it was as tight on the rope as they could put it. He never examined the clip after the accident. [Dunfermline Journal 27 October 1928]