Study and Analysis of Accidents Due to Wheeled Trackless Transportation Machinery in Indian Coal Mines – Identification of Gap in Current Investigation System

AbstractMining is one of the most hazardous industries amongst where the rate of casualty is still very high from work place accidents. A large number of mobile mining equipment such as haul trucks, dumpers, tractors, tankers are used for different operation and such operations contribute significantly in causation of fatal and serious accidents. In this study, 33 years ‘fatal accident data from Indian coal mines were analyzed from 1980. The rate of fatal accident shows a significant reduction from 1980 to 2000 but it becomes almost flat for the last 13 years since 2000. Though all the accidents were investigated and recommendation were made for preventing recurrence, there is no further reduction in the rate in last 13 years which reflects the gaps in our investigation procedure or recommendation or implementation. An effort has been made in this paper to highlight the major gaps in the existing investigating procedure and thereby making useful recommendations to ensure effective control measures in place to reduce the risk to an acceptable level