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Full Details

Surname
SWIFT
Forename
James
Day
21
Month
02
Year
1908
Age
14
Occupation
Pony Driver
Mine/Quarry Name
South Kirkby
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
South Kirkby, Featherstone & Hemsworth Collieries Ltd
Location
South Kirkby
County
Yorkshire WR
Details of Event
He was killed by a girder falling on to him owing to a prop supporting one end of it being displaced by a derailed tub on a haulage road. The haulage for the greater part of the distance is done by main and tail lope but about 100 yards from the pass bye the tail rope is knocked off and the tubs ran that distance by gravity dragging the main rope with them. The sets were made up of 40 tubs and run rather faster than a man can walk. When the train comes to rest it is broken up for distribution to the drivers who are supposed to wait for their respective roads. On the day of the accident the deceased and another driver were standing in the main road at the side of a train of full tubs between the sets of rails and when the empty tubs came in they were between two trains and cut off from the refuge holes. Two of the empty tubs left the rails and the two boys ran in opposite directions. The deceased ran in the same direction as the tubs and had reached a left hand road when the tubs stuck the prop and displaced it and the girder above it fell upon and killed him instantly.