Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	3rd May 1893
Colliery:	West Auckland
Cause:	Fall of stone
Lives Lost:	1

Number 20 on the list occurred at West Auckland Colliery, belonging to Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan, and Company, Limited, on the 3rd of May, about 6 o'clock p.m., causing the death of James Halfpenny, a deputy.

This accident occurred while he and another deputy were drawing a jud. The evidence at the inquest, given by the deputy who was with deceased, was as follows:—

"I am a deputy at West Auckland Colliery. I had been drawing in my own district on the afternoon of the accident, and I had finished there, and went to assist Halfpenny. He was taking timber out of a jud about 9 yards long by 6 yards wide, and rising about 9 inches to the yard. I had only been with deceased five or ten minutes when the accident happened. He attempted to cut a prop in the middle, and when he struck the first blow the fall took place with a rush, and completely buried, so much that it took five hours to get him out from under the fall. I never saw a jud fall so suddenly in my experience before."

There was nothing to see when the place was inspected after the accident, except the hole from which deceased was taken out.

I think it was an accident which could not have been prevented or foreseen. The cutting of the prop in the middle was wrong. In taking timber out the props should always be cut at the top. Cutting them in the middle is a very dangerous practice.

Source:

1893 Mines Inspectors Report (C 7339)

	Halfpenny, James, aged 38, Deputy, Sudden fall of a broken jud while engaged removing the timber.
	All names found

 

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