Sean Kennedy 1992
On the morning of the accident three employees of Farnsway Faminco Proprietary Limited a contracting firm engaged by
Carpentaria Gold Proprietary Limited to carry out underground development work at the Latters Tick Hill gold mine were mucking out the face of eight seventy five sill drive. They were the deceased Sean James Kennedy and dump truck drivers Karen Maree Stokes and Shane Michael Prowse.
After the heading had been cleared they proceeded to mark up the outline of the fourmetre by four metre face prior to the drilling of the next ground. Prowse departed leaving Kennedy and Stokes to finish the job. Kennedy stood in the bucket of the unit while Stokes now at the controls responded to Kennedy's signal and raised the bucket about two metres so that Kennedy could mark the upper side walls of the drive. She then advanced the unit towards the face. In some manner which will never be known for certain the deceased was crushed between the lip of the bucket and the face.
This accident claimed the life of Sean James Kennedy
Recommendations
Approved standard work procedures must be drawn up and enforced to cover the situation where persons are lifted in the bucket of load-haul-dump units. In this regard special attention must be given to those units equipped with z-bar linkage on the bucket. The geometry of which causes the bucket to tip automatically when the boom is raised above a certain height unless it is fully retracted. Three details of this accident should be promulgated to all mines where mechanised tractless mining methods are employed.