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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	7th September 1909
Colliery:	Shildon Lodge
Company:	Bolckow, Vaughan and Co., Ltd.
Cause:	Electric shock
Lives Lost:	1
Category:	Miscellaneous Underground Accidents :: By Electricity

There were two fatal and three non-fatal accidents due to the use of Electricity underground, during the year. Both the fatal cases were simple of explanation ; the first is described and remarked upon in Appendix I., the second occurred at Shildon Lodge Colliery, and resulted in the death of the pump attendant, who, noticing that one of the nuts fixing one of the cable lugs on to a terminal was loose, went behind the switchboard and attempted to tighten it up whilst the current was on. He could have had the current switched off if he had asked the man in the switch-house at bank to do so. He had been in telephonic communication with the man in the switch-house, but made no reference to his intention to go behind the switchboard. It is true that, as a matter of fact, he had no business to go behind the switchboard at all, but the necessary operation being a very simple one, it is to be presumed that he thought by performing it he would be doing good service. The curious part is that he did not first have the current switched off. Another point is that the switch board was such that he could get behind it. It is true that there were sides to it, and that to get behind it, the man had to get over a barricade which had a danger board hung on it. These might have been expected to stop any unauthorised person going behind the board, but they did not. After the accident a locked gauze protection was put up to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.

Source:

1909 Mines Inspectors Report (Cd 5177) Where to find this report

	Thompson, John D., aged 27, Pumpman, This man went through a fence and then behind a switchboard to tighten a nut on a live terminal and was killed
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