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Full Details

Surname
WILSON
Forename
John
Day
08
Month
03
Year
1926
Age
Occupation
Miner
Mine/Quarry Name
Riddochhill
Mineral Worked
Coal
Owner
William Baird & Co. Ltd
Location
Bathgate
County
Linlithgowshire
Details of Event
Fatal Accident Inquiry: John Wilson, miner, 39 Paulville Rows, Bathgate, died on 8 March 1926 at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, from injuries sustained on the same day in Riddochhill Colliery, Livingston Parish, West Lothian, when he was struck by a train of runaway tubs. Information from the Inspectors of Mines - 1926: Underground Haulage Accident: At Riddochhill Colliery,Linlithgow, a miner on his way to work was entering a haulage road, the gradient of which was 1 in 69 in favour of the loaded tubs. He was passing between a train of empty tubs and the side wall, at the curve into this haulage road, when three loaded tubs which had run from an inbye lye arrived at the turn, jumped the rails and crashed broadside into the empty tubs, one of which crushed him against the wall and fatally injured him. No evidence could be obtained as to why the tubs should have run away from the lye and gained such speed on a road with such a low gradient, but the lesson is that tubs should always be properly secured by stop blocks in every siding, no matter how flat.