24. The overwind occurred about 6.30 a.m. on Tuesday, 4th March, 1958. during a wind that was made after 260 persons had been raised out of the mine and 507 persons lowered into it by the man-winding operations that had commenced about one hour previously. In this wind the ascending overlap rope cage was empty and the descending underlap-rope cage was carrying the maximum number of persons permitted by the manager, namely, 44 persons of whom there were 22 in each of the two decks of the cage.

25. The descending cage was landed on the wooden baulks at the Silkstone Seam entrance at such an excessive speed that 28 of the persons in the cage sustained fractures of the lower limbs and the remainder suffered from shock and bruises as a result of the impact. The names of the persons who were injured and the nature of their injuries are given in Appendix II. The impact also partially fractured one of the wooden baulks. The descending winding rope continued in motion until the winding engine stopped by which time a further 45 feet of this rope had been uncoiled from the drum. Part of the rope and the cage chains were lying on top of the cage.

26. The ascending cage travelled past the landing places in the headframe at a speed that was 1.59 times that at which the descending cage had struck the baulks at the Silkstone Seam entrance. The cage continued to ascend and it was detached from the winding rope by the combined actions of the detaching hook in the cage suspension gear and of the detaching plate that was located below the overlap-rope pulley in the headframe. After detachment the cage continued to ascend until it had lost its momentum and then it dropped back owing to the effect of gravity until it was arrested by the safety catches which are referred to in paragraph 31 and shown in the Drawing.