The incident compilation reports for these two months were received by ILN this week –not long after its feature a fortnight ago on how this type of reporting had disappeared since May.

In that coverage, ILN reported that this government reporting was not mandatory and was considered the “pet project” of an inspector who had become too busy to continue with them after becoming a chief inspector.

Yet it seems that some work to clear the backlog has begun, although the two HPI compilation reports for June and July are not yet available on the relevant state government website.

Amputation cases in June

In what must have been one of the most unusual incidents of last year, the June report revealed that a Queensland mine worker had part of his finger amputated “when the crib room chair he was sitting on collapsed”, with no other details provided.

A mine worker had the top of his thumb amputated in a separate incident that month when the hydraulic shutter door of a cement kibble forcefully closed on to it.

There were several underground-explosion related HPIs in June.

Perhaps the most concerning was when uncertified portable electrical equipment was taken into an underground coal mine without being accompanied by a handheld methane detector.

An electrician also found a non-flameproof junction in an explosion-risk zone of an undisclosed underground coal mine, while there was a separate HPI over the failure of handheld monitor to activate an alarm at a 0.5% methane trigger level.

One of the bigger UG coal incidents was an unexpected power loss to the ventilation fans of an underground coal mine, which subsequently forced an evacuation to the surface.

There was also a spontaneous combustion incident at an operation’s run-of-mine coal stockpile.

Among other surface incidents, a worker concerned about a hot engine-related fire on the Cat 631G scraper he was operating broke his ankle after he jumped from the cabin.

The driver of a triple road train avoided injury after the maxi brakes slowed down the rig on a haul road.

While making adjustments to the brake lines after parking the road train, the driver purportedly saw it roll 25m down a gully and then jack knife.

July 2013 HPIs

There were significantly less underground coal-related scares in the following month. Perhaps the most notable was what happened to a hydraulic-powered roof support at a workshop.

“A dump truck reversed over a chock which had been left in position after maintenance,” the report revealed.

“Part of the chock was ejected and flew across the tyre bay, shattering the window of a tyre handler

parked 6m away.”

An unusual incident occurred when the fine coal accumulated under a dump truck tyre ignited while on a haul road enroute to a stockpile.

The truck ended up quarantined for 24 hours with a 300m exclusion zone established.

In an explosive incident, fly rock was estimated to have travelled more than 1km from a planned blast.

“Some rocks landed in front of the shotfirer while others flew over his head,” the HPI report revealed.