Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	6th October 1898
Colliery:	New Brancepeth
Cause:	Fall of Roof or Side
Lives Lost:	1

No. 458 on the list occurred at New Brancepeth Colliery, belonging to Messrs. Cochrane and Co., Ltd., on October the 6th, causing the death of a deputy.

This accident occurred in a broken jud which had been driven 5 yards and had other two to go before it holed into the goaf. The place was well timbered with props and planks, and chocks on the loose side, but it suddenly commenced to work heavily owing to weight coming on the stone above, and the two hewers came out and brought the tub with them. They then went for the deceased deputy who, on coming to the place, went straight into it and commenced to pull up the rails and sleepers, and had almost finished doing so when a large frame of stone fell upon and killed him instantaneously. During the time he was in the stone was falling all around him, and the others begged of him to come out, but he would not do so.

This accident was caused by deceased's recklessness. He had evidently thought his judgment was better than that of the hewers, and out of perverseness stayed in the place longer than he should have done. He had been employed at this colliery 24 years and was considered to be a careful man, and this makes his conduct on this occasion all the more difficult to understand.

Nothing is gained by running risks in the way this man did, and in this particular case all the rails and sleepers would have been got out if he had waited till the stone became settled.

Source:

1898 Mines Inspectors Report (C 9264), Durham District (No. 4) by R. D. Bain, H.M. Inspector of Mines, from a copy held in the Scottish Mining Museum, Newtongrange, Midlothian.

	Naisbitt, William, aged 61, Night Shift Deputy, he went into a broken jud, which was working heavily, to pull up and cast back the rails; the stone commenced to fall at the out-bye end of the jud, and although urged by the hewer to come out, he stayed in until a large stone fell upon and killed him, Buried: Brandon Cemetery
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