| Date: | 1925 |
| Colliery: | Boldon |
| Company: | |
| Cause: | (See description below) |
| Lives Lost: | 1 |
| Category: | |
A crusher attendant was killed at Boldon Colliery, Durham. He opened a trap door and was descending a ladder backwards carrying a shovel, in order to clean out the sump of a coal crusher. He disobeyed an instruction to stop the machinery before proceeding down the ladder. The shovel became entangled in the spokes of a revolving flywheel and he was drawn into the wheel, sustaining injuries from which he died two days later. Because the approach to the machinery, which was installed in a confined space, was by means of a trap door, it was considered by the management that the machinery was fenced. The statute requires every flywheel and all exposed and dangerous parts of machinery to be kept securely fenced. Machinery cannot be fenced by an order or instruction; it must be so protected as to guard so far as possible not only against normal risks but against the carelessness, ignorance and disobedience of persons who may come into contact with it.
| Source: | 1925 Mines Inspectors Report |
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