The Queensland Mines Inspectorate this week issued a safety bulletin alerting the industry to the occurrence of another high potential incident involving a person on foot and a shuttle car.

The inspectorate said the person was standing alongside a shuttle car talking to the driver during loading operations, despite the area being designated a no-go zone.

The shuttle car driver told the person the shuttle car was to be moved outbye. During the outbye movement, the shuttle car started to slide towards the person standing alongside.

The inspectorate said the driver appeared to counteract the sideways movement by turning the steering wheel in the opposite direction, which caused the rear of the shuttle car to swing towards the pedestrian and the coal rib.

Several of the face crew and the pedestrian yelled to the driver to stop.

The shuttle car did not hit the pedestrian.

“All personnel entering a face production zone are to inform the ERZ [explosion risk zone] controller before entering the zone and also advise of their intentions while in the zone. No-go and restricted zones are to be observed by all personnel at all times,” the inspectorate said.

It recommended that all underground coal mines review their machinery operating zones and reinforce no-go and restricted zones procedures to all personnel going underground.