Injuries associated with continuous miners, shuttle cars, load–haul–dump and personnel transport in New South Wales underground coal mines

Abstract

In the three years to June 2005, 959 injuries associated with continuous miners (CMs), shuttle cars (SCs), load-haul-dump and personnel transport (PT) were reported by NSW underground coal mines, comprising 23% of all injuries reported. The present paper reports an analysis of the narrative field accompanying these reports to determine opportunities for controlling injury risks. The most common combinations of activity and mechanism were: strain while handling CM cable (96 injuries); caught between or struck by moving parts while bolting on a CM (86 injuries); strains while bolting on CM (54 injuries); and slipping off a CM during access, egress or other activity (60 injuries). For the other equipment considered, the common injury mechanism was the vehicle running over a pothole or other roadway abnormality causing the driver or passengers to be injured (169 injuries). Potential control measures include: monorails for CM services; hydraulic cable reelers; handrails on CM platforms; redesign of CM platforms and bolting rigs to reduce reach distances during drilling and bolting; improvements to guarding of bolting controls; standardisation and shape coding of bolting controls; two handed fast feed; improvements in underground roadway maintenance, vehicle suspension, visibility and seating; and pedestrian proximity warning devices.

Injuries Associated with Underground Coal Mining Equipment in Australia

“…A previous analyses of injuries associated with a subset of underground coal mining equipment types has been reported [3]. This paper extends the analysis to include all equipment types, and utilises data from the three years to the end of June, 2008.…”

“…These reports included injuries of varying severity, from medical expenses only, to time lost, and serious bodily injury. Narratives describing the injuries occurring underground were manually coded for equipment involvement; activity being undertaken by the injured person immediately prior to the injury; the injury mechanism; and agent of injury, using previously determined codes [3]. Frequencies of cross-tabulated combinations of codes were calculated and presented graphically to aid interpretation.…”

“…The detail contained in these narratives varies, however additional insight is generally into the causes of the injury, such as the activity being performed at the time of the injury. Analysis of injury narratives has previously been undertaken in mining [3][4][5]; construction [6][7][8]; welders [9] and truck drivers [10].…”

EDEEP—An Innovative Process for Improving the Safety of Mining Equipment

“…For example, Ruff et al reported that 41% of severe injuries across all US mines from 2000 to 2007 were associated with machinery [1]. This proportion may be even higher in some sectors: While Burgess-Limerick and Steiner reported that 46% of injuries in New South Wales underground coal mines from 2006 to 2008 were associated with equipment [2]; Cooke et al [3] reported that 68% of injuries at surface coal mines in NSW from 2005 to 2009 were associated with the operation or maintenance of mobile mining equipment. In terms of the types of equipment most frequently associated with injuries, Cooke et al further reported that Haul Trucks (32%) and Bulldozers (21%) were involved in slightly over half of the mobile equipment-related injuries logged at the surface coal mines.…”

Visual feedback system to reduce errors while operating roof bolting machines

“…Errors in the operation of roof bolters have caused many fatalities and injuries. Injuries caused by intentional control operation can be divided into the following categories: the wrong control was operated; the correct control was operated in the wrong direction; the intended control was operated in the intended direction while the injured employee (a roof bolter operator or another person) was in a position of danger (Burgess-Limerick, Krupenia, Zupanc, Wallis, & Steiner, 2010;Burgess-Limerick & Steiner, 2006, 2011.…”