| Date: | 1925 |
| Colliery: | Montagu Caroline |
| Company: | |
| Cause: | (See description below) |
| Lives Lost: | 1 |
| Category: | |
A fatality at Montagu Caroline Colliery, Northumberland, emphasises perhaps the most important point conducing to the prevention of accidents from falls of roof and sides, namely, that supports must be set as soon as there is room for them and that under no pretext whatever should the setting of supports be delayed "until a more convenient season." It also furnishes an argument against the deputy system in vogue in most collieries in the Division — a system which places upon the deputy a great deal of the responsibility for actually setting supports in addition to his statutory duties and responsibilities, and in so doing encourages an attitude of laissez-faire on the part of the miner in regard to his timbering. A hewer was kirving in the top of a seam 3 ft. thick, under a "slippy" canch, which had been shot up to the face, but which was partly overhanging due to the inclination of the face of the canch. A portion of the canch, 4 ft. 6 in. by 4 ft. and 10 in. thick, fell from a hidden jack, bursting off some coal and caught deceased. He died from his injuries one hour later. Deceased had jowled the face of the canch shortly before, but as he was expecting a visit from the deputy who was then overdue, he continued working, no doubt intending to get the deputy to set a stay as soon as he arrived. The hewer took a needless risk which cost him his life. Incidentally, there was a breach of the face timbering rules.
| Source: | 1925 Mines Inspectors Report |
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