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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	19th December 1900
Colliery:	Westwood
Company:	Consett Iron Co., Ltd.
Cause:	Underground Haulage Accident
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

No. 475 on the list occurred at the Westwood Colliery, belonging to Messrs. The Consett Iron Co., Ltd., on December 19th, and caused the death of a waggonwayman.

Deceased's duty was to attend to the engine plane, ropes, and way, and on the day in question he was run over by an empty set and killed.

He appears to have placed his shovel against the side, placed a piece of wood on the shoulder of the shovel for seat, sat down on it, and to have stuck his candle against the wall side and then gone to sleep. The set had gone in and he, not noticing it, had been run over and dragged some distance.

On the side he had been sitting there is not much room, and his legs would be partly across the rails of the engine plane, but on the opposite side there was a space all the way between the side and rail of 4 feet, and the refuge holes are 10 yards apart.

All the care that can be taken cannot prevent and accident of this kind, and it is difficult to understand how a man can jeopardise his life in the way this man did. If it was absolutely necessary that he should sit down, he should have sat where there was plenty of room and no chance of his being caught.

I am pleased to say these cases of sleeping in the pit are very rare.

Source:

1900 Mines Inspectors Report (Cd 536), Durham District (No. 4) by R. D. Bain, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 30 Where to find this report

	McOlvin, William, aged 66, Rolleywayman, Everything points to this man having sat down by side of engine plane, about mid-way between two refuge holes, with his legs over one rail, and gone to sleep, and while in this position the empty set came in, caught, dragged him some distance, and crushed him to death., Buried: St. Ebba's Churchyard, Ebchester
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