Double prosecution for coal mining company

The former UK Coal Mining company was sentenced on Tuesday (22 October) for serious safety failings that led to the death of a miner and, in a separate prosecution, for an underground pit explosion, both at Kellingley Colliery in North Yorkshire.

 

Gerry Gibson, from Sherburn in Elmet, Leeds, was killed on 27 September 2011 when 15 tonnes of rock forming a section of roof collapsed as a powered roof support was being operated. 

 

He was trapped near to the centre of the roof fall and died from asphyxiation. A second miner, Philip Sheldon, was released after being trapped toward the edge of the collapse and was allowed home after hospital treatment.

 

Mr Gibson’s death came six days after a similar roof fall occured in the same vicinity of the mine with the same powered roof support in operation.

 

Mr Gibson’s employer was prosecuted by the HSE as Juniper (No3) Limited, the name given after UK Coal Mining Ltd went into administration in July this year. Administrators had entered a guilty plea on behalf of the company at Leeds Magistrates’ Court earlier this month (October).

 

An HSE investigation into the incident identified that UK Coal managers were fully aware of the earlier roof fall, however, despite clear dangers posed to workers, no investigation into the failure of the roof support was carried out and insufficient precautions were taken to prevent it happening again. 

 

The HSE also found that the company had not improved the system of monitoring the roof supports to ensure warning signs of ground movement would be picked up quickly.

 

Magistrates heard that it was unacceptable for UK Coal to have allowed miners to continue to work in that part of the mine following the earlier roof fall without:

 

€ﾢ having carried out an in-depth investigation into the cause;

€ﾢ putting measures in place to prevent a recurrence;

€ﾢ workers being fully aware of the potential dangers; and

€ﾢ establishing suitable procedures to ensure no-one was in the area when the roof support was in operation.

 

Juniper (No3) Limited, c/o the administrators at Bridgewater Place, Leeds, was fined £200,000 after pleading guilty to a breach of section 2(1) of the HSWA 1974. It was agreed that although prosecution costs were properly incurred they would not be awarded so as not to jeopardise any potential payments to the Miners’ Pensioners’ coal allowance scheme, a main creditor against UK Coal’s limited financial assets.

 

On the same day UK Coal was also sentenced for safety failings that led to an underground pit explosion and the evacuation of more than 200 miners from Kellingley Colliery.

 

The methane gas explosion at Yorkshire’s last remaining deep mine happened during the evening shift on 23 November 2010. The incident was investigated by the Mines Inspectorate of the HSE.

 

Leeds Crown Court heard that an explosive mixture of flammable gases had accumulated close to the area where miners were working.

 

The court heard that 218 miners were safely evacuated from Kellingley’s 501’s District. Dozens of further minor explosions took place just behind the coal face as accumulated gas ignited — probably from a residual hanging flame — and then burnt off. It was nearly three weeks before production was able to resume.

 

The former UK Coal Mining Ltd of Harworth Park, Blyth Road, Harworth, Nottinghamshire, was fined £50,000 after pleading guilty to a single breach of section 2(1) of the HSWA 1974. It was agreed, as with the case above, that prosecution costs would not be awarded so as not to jeopardise any potential payments to the Miners’ Pensioners’ Coal Allowance.

 

After the hearing, HSE principal mines inspector Bob Leeming, said: “If the explosion had occurred 20 minutes earlier, 10 men would have been right in it and we could have been dealing with a fatal incident. However, this happened near the end of the shift and the workers were at a safe enough distance when the gas ignited. In only slightly different circumstances, the outcome could have been very different.”