Description

Number 7 on the list also occurred at Deaf Hill Colliery. It took place on the 15th of February, at about 3.20 p.m., and cause the death of John Dart, a banksman.

On the day in question the pit was off work, and advantage was taken of this fact to put a water-cage into one side of the shaft to draw water from the Harvey Seam ; the ordinary cage was left in at the other side.

At about 3 o’clock the master shifter went down to the Low Main, along with the horse keepers, and left those of that seam, and then signalled the cage to be taken to the Harvey Seam, which was done, so that the horse keepers belonging to that seam could be left there ; the master shifter was with the horse keepers, on account of the pit being idle, and no one therefore was in attendance at the signals at the two seams. When the cage was about 6 yards above the Harvey Seam he noticed the cage jerk, and on returning to the surface he looked particularly at the guide, or "skeet," which is of wood, on the side on which he had felt the jerk in going down, and found a piece broken out for a length of 9 feet, and when he got to bank he told deceased what he had seen, and that he had better send for the shaftmen to put it right.

The deceased man, however, instead of doing this, and waiting till they came, got on to the top of the cage and went down and saw the place, came to the surface, and said he had forgotten to turn the water off at the Low Main Seam – there is a valve in a pipe which conveys the Low Main water into the sump and the Harvey Seam – and got on to the cage top again and called to the engineman to take him to the Low Main Seam.

It appears that the "skeets" or guides at the point 6 yards above the Harvey Seam on both sides were broken, and that the water-cage on the opposite side to the cage had got out of the guides ; the second time he went down the shaft, and travelled up, and when it got to meetings it struck the cage, on which deceased was standing, and commenced to lift it ; the cage chains and detaching hook lowered on to his head and knocked him off, and at the same time the chain on the water-cage broke, and he and the water-cage fell a distance of 80 yards on to a metal bunting, on which part of a pumping set is carried, and he was killed instantly.

Both guides on the side on which they are damaged were carried on a wooden brattice, which extends from the surface to the Harvey Seam, a distance of 320 yards.

What caused the guides to be broken is not known ; it may have been that when the water-cage was in the sump, or portion of the shaft below the Harvey Seam, being filled, that the chain, which would be slack, had caught one of the guides, and when it was tightened it pulled it out of its place, taking the brattice and other guide at the same time. Just behind this point (i.e. where the guide and brattice were displaced) it was covered over, and, as it was very frosty weather at the time, it may be that ice had fallen at the back of, and forced the brattice out towards the shaft, and thus caused either the water-cage or cage to catch the brattice, and displace it and the guides.

There is no doubt that deceased should not have gone down the shaft at all after it was reported to him that something was wrong with the guides. It was no part of his duty to go into the shaft ; properly qualified and well experienced men are kept at all the collieries for this purpose, and he should have waited until they came ; and, even supposing he was right in going down, I cannot see why he should have got on to the top of the cage. From the evidence given at the inquest it appeared to have been a practice of his, although the manager said he had given him instructions a short time before the accident occurred that no one was, on any pretext whatever, to get on to the cage-tops, except the shaftmen.

If deceased had done as he should, this accident would not have occurred, and I should not have had it to record.

Deaf Hill Colliery Memorial

Sources

• 1895 Mines Inspectors Report (C 8074), Durham District (No. 4) by Thomas Bell, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 12 Where to find this report
• 1895 Mines Inspectors Report (C 8074), Durham District (No. 4) by Thomas Bell, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 25, Accident Number: 7 Where to find this report

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