| Disasters - Names |
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Disasters - Names | ||
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| Date: | 31st October 1900 |
| Colliery: | Loftus (Ironstone) |
| Cause: | (See description below) |
| Lives Lost: | 1 |
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| Description | |
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No. 417 on the list occurred at Loftus Ironstone Mine, belonging to Messrs. Pease and Partners, Limited, on October 31st, and caused the death of a horse leader.
At these mines there are two boys with each horse, one to lead and the other to look after the waggons. On this occasion they had brought an empty waggon from the landing and loosed the horse and turned it round to go back again, taking it past the left side of the tub where there was a prop set ; the horse stumbled, hit the prop and knocked it out, causing a fall of roof which caught deceased and fatally injured him.
There appears to have been some carelessness in connection with the case. In the first place, if deceased had been at the horse's head, as he should have been, he would not have been caught by the fall of stone, and in the second, the horse was taken past the wrong side of the tub; the space at the other side was 5 feet and quite ample for the horse to get past without catching anything.
The place where the waggon was stopped was not a good one; had it been four yards on either side of the prop, there was much more room.
For want of a little care and forethought this boy has lost his life.
| Source: | 1900 Mines Inspectors Report (Cd 536), Durham District (No. 4) by R. D. Bain, H.M. Inspector of Mines, from a copy held in the Scottish Mining Museum, Newtongrange, Midlothian. |
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| Fatalities | |
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Hicks, James, aged 15, Horse Leader, He was driving his horse through between a tub and a prop and the trace stretcher caught and pulled the prop out, and a large piece of stone fell from roof and killed him. | |
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