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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	14th May 1860
Colliery:	Quaker Lane
Company:	Mr. John Sheard
Cause:	Crushed by a steam engine
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

Accident No. 16 in the Tabular List.

Crushed by a steam engine at Quaker Lane Colliery, near Leeds.

A youth (named Samuel Austin) who had not attained the age of 15 years, was improperly and illegally employed by Mr. John Sheard (the proprietor of this mine), to manage a pumping and drawing engine ; and in a few hours after commencing a task for which he was wholly unqualified, the poor lad got entangled in the unfenced fly-wheel, and was instantly killed.

The same machinery had, under precisely similar conditions, proved fatal to an engine-boy at another of Mr. John Sheard's pits about seven years ago ; when he, as owner, was prosecuted and fined £20 for violating the Act 5 & 6 Vict. c. 99.

It is highly important that the law should be faithfully obeyed in regard to the age of an engine worker ; not only because of the risk to which a young and inexperienced engineer is himself exposed, but especially for the protection of the miners whom he lets down and draws up the pit, and whose lives may be put in imminent peril through his inability to perform his duty.

The machinery and steam boiler thus wantonly confided to the unfortunate lad (Austin), were so imperfect and dilapidated as to be dangerous to every person connected with or dependent on them. The wheels were unfenced ; the break was inadequate ; there was neither indicator nor signalling apparatus ; a steam gauge had not been attached to the boiler ; the water gauge was broken ; the common water float often stuck fast ; and the edges of the drum were not guarded by flanges or horns. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of "accidental death," but they strongly censured Mr. John Sheard for employing so young and incompetent a person in such a hazardous occupation, and for neglecting to apply to his machinery the ordinary means of security.

My investigations further discovered that Mr. John Sheard had omitted to establish proper rules at this mine, and at his Dale Lane Colliery. I also found that he had no map or plan of Quaker Lane Colliery ; that the underground works were badly ventilated, and much infested with black-damp ; that several pits were left uncased at the side, and unfenced at the top ; and that two other steam engines belonging to him were not provided with the safety appliances which the Mining Act required.

It was quite obvious that Mr. John Sheard was disposed to set the law utterly at defiance, and therefore I received your authority to prosecute him for the many delinquencies before mentioned.

The Dewsbury magistrates, by whom the various accusations were tried, expressed their belief that the circumstances attending the death of the engine-boy, would have fully warranted the coroner's jury in finding a verdict of "manslaughter" against the defendant ; and declared that he had exhibited a total disregard of the lives of his workmen.

For his illegal and unjustifiable employment of the young engine worker, the Bench inflicted a fine of £40 on the defendant ; and further levied upon him a number of smaller penalties for the several other offences of which he had been guilty.

The aggregate amount of fines and costs paid by the defendant was about £70, out of which you were pleased to bestow a donation of £20 on the widowed mother of the luckless boy (Austin), by whose sad and untimely decease she was rendered nearly destitute.

Source: 1860 Mines Inspectors Report, Yorkshire District, by Charles Morton, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 5

	Austin, Samuel, aged Boy, A Boy, Crushed by a steam engine
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