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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	19th November 1907
Colliery:	Woodhorn
Company:	Ashington Coal Co., Ltd.
Cause:	(See description below)
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

Deceased was employed on a trough conveyor worked by compressed air, extending along a longwall face for 90 yards in the Yard seam, 3 feet thick, and he went down the pit about an hour before the fillers with the engineman to adjust the conveyor and oil its bearings. The conveyor had been moved forward in a previous shift and had not worked since. The ordinary speed of the chain is about 17 feet per minute. He went to the tail end and first tightened up the chain by means of a ratchet handle and then while on the goaf side and while the chain was moving slowly, proceeded to oil the bearings of the return wheel. He reached over to oil the bearing next the face and some portion of his clothing was caught by the chain as it moved forward from the return wheel and he was pulled into the trough and carried along about 6 feet before the engine was stopped. A filler within 2 feet of him heard him shout and he shouted, and the overman who had just passed and another filler at the other end of the face also shouted to the engineman who stopped his engine and deceased was extricated. His right arm had been pulled off and he died from shock a few minutes after reaching home. Verbal instructions had been given that oiling was not to be done while the conveyor was in motion. The Local Inspectors in their report stated that while they were "Unable to give an opinion how the accident occurred, we would recommend the tail end of conveyor be protected, also some means of communication from tail end to engine end of all conveyors. It was arranged that printed notices prohibiting oiling when in motion should be exhibited, and that a light cover be fixed over the return wheel as a fence." Means of communicating signals had been tried but was not a success.

Source:

1907 Mines Inspectors Report (Cd 4045), Newcastle District (No. 3) by J. B. Atkinson, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 51, Accident Number: 96 Where to find this report

	Steele, Edward, aged 16, Conveyor Attendant, Buried: St. John's Churchyard, Ashington
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