| Date: | 25th September 1897 |
| Colliery: | Hamsterley |
| Cause: | On surface |
| Lives Lost: | 1 |
No. 418 on the list occurred at Hamsterley Colliery, belonging to the owners of Hamsterley Colliery, on September 25th, causing the death of a branch horse-driver.
Deceased had two horses attached to a loaded truck of coke which was going from the weighbridge to a siding where some other trucks were standing. The trace chain of the last horse was hooked on to the hook on the draw bar of the truck. The horses were in the middle of the way and when they got to the other trucks turned out to the right, but they had not given slack in sufficient time for the deceased to get the chain unhooked and get out, and he was caught between the buffers of the trucks and so severely crushed that he died two days afterwards.
If he had remained where he was he would have been quite safe, but there was no reason whatever for him to go in between the rails at all. The trucks are all provided with hitches at the sides for the purpose of coupling a horse to. The manager promised me he would give instructions that in future that both horses and men should be kept at the side of the trucks outside the rails, and if this is done accidents of this kind cannot occur.
| Source: | 1897 Mines Inspectors Report (C 8819), Durham District (No. 4) by R. D. Bain, H.M. Inspector of Mines, from a copy held in the Scottish Mining Museum, Newtongrange, Midlothian. |
| | Turnbull, John, aged 50, Horse Driver on branches, He was pulling up a truck to join another, and after loosing the chain, stepped in between the buffers, but was too long in getting through, and was crushed. Died on the 27th |
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