Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	15th August 1901
Colliery:	New Brancepeth
Cause:	(See description below)
Lives Lost:	1

No. 275 on the list occurred at New Brancepeth Colliery, belonging to Messrs. Cochrane & Co., Ltd., on the 15th of August, and caused the death of a driver.

This boy had been getting on to the limbers, and in doing so his head was caught between the top of the tub and a baulk supporting the roof, and he was injured so severely that he died almost immediately. He had just brought two full tubs with sprags in two wheels down an incline, and at the bottom of it stopped the pony to take out the sprags, and as soon as he had done this he attempted to get on to the limbers to ride, the pony moved away and he was caught as described.

The place is considered by the management unsafe for lads to ride in front of the tubs on account of the incline, the presence of a curve close to it, and the small space between the tubs and timber — 3½ inches — and this boy had been told that he was not to ride but to walk behind the tubs. Had he carried out these instructions I should not have the unpleasant duty of recording this fatality.

Source:

1901 Mines Inspectors Report (Cd 1062), Durham District (No. 4) by R. D. Bain, H.M. Inspector of Mines, from a copy held in the Scottish Mining Museum, Newtongrange, Midlothian

	Smith, William, aged 14, Driver, his head was caught between the first tub of his full set and a plank when getting on to limbers
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