The electrician was working at an electrical distribution control board on a beam stage loader (BSL) at the longwall face.

The BSL is a chain conveyor at the end of the face that transports coal from the armoured face conveyor (AFC) on the longwall to the main belt conveyor leading out of the mine.

It also incorporates a small crusher to reduce the coal particle size.

As the maingate end of the longwall started to move during a maingate advance, the electrician became trapped between the coal rib and the maingate drive.

The electrician, who had to be rescued by his fellow workers, survived but was admitted to hospital with severe injuries.

An account of the accident from a source indicates that Oaky North has lived up to the form which won it the Australian Mines Rescue competition last year.

The source said the worker had a vein cut in his leg which caused him to lose about three litres of blood by the time he reached hospital.

“As the Mines Inspectorate ‘nature and cause investigation’ is still underway, all contributing factors to the accident have not been finally established,” the manager of safety and health said in an alert.

“However, the accident does highlight hazards associated with working in the vicinity of longwall equipment.

“The prompt action of coal mine workers and their care in undertaking the rescue certainly helped reduce the severity of this accident.”

Mine site senior executives should also review the operational procedures for maingate activities on the longwall and review the means of access on to the longwall face in all foreseeable circumstances and the triggers that require a change in the access procedures, the manager of safety and health said.

These controls must be effective to ensure the risk to coal mine workers in the vicinity of longwall equipment, is within acceptable limits and as low as reasonably achievable.