http://tiny.cc/fy0t2

As someone living in a former mining area Its nice to see a good ending to Chilean mining saga. As the above link shows the outcome could be so different with Fife suffering some really bad accidents in the mining industry.

The fact 300 men who were killed while working at the Lady Josephine Colliery between 1895 and 1965. This amounts to approximately one every three months over the 70 year period.

If we had modern technology long ago would so many have lost their lives in this brutal industry.

Perhaps this was the roots of the obsessive Health and Safety culture we find ourselves working under today.
I know Yorkshire and Durham had lots of mines however I dont know the history of those areas but I imagine the work/accident rate would have been similar due to the work type carried out.

Those lads had it hard...

There are lots of pits up in the North East - and lots of them had their own disasters too.

An old neighbour of mine used to work at Ellington pit, and to get to the coalface, he spent 40 minutes on a train to get there.


And that was 12 miles out under the sea...


The Chilean miners will have a lot going on in their heads over the next few months.

They spent three weeks thinking they were going to starve to death in there . Cannot be good for the mind at all.

God bless them.

Fantastic feat of Engineering to get them out, wholly empathise with them as an ex employee of British Coal.

Good look to all the 'Lads'

There were certainly several people killed while I worked in the mining industry in South Yorkshire.

With man riding belts, mine shafts, high voltage electricity, methane gas and idiotic 16 yr olds like me working there it was always goint to be dangerous!

Stu

[Edited on 13/10/10 by whitestu]

On the local NE news tonight they reported on the 204 miners who perished in a pit collapse in 1862 at New Hartley, thats about 3 miles from my house.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/england/tyne/

Doesnt bear thinking about...



New Hartley now is still a small place, thats probably most of the male population killed in one swoop.

Aye, I got up this morning to see the first man out, very sobering indeed.

I've know a few who have perished at the pit and many more with missing fingers and what not....

There's memorials around here to the hundreds who died in the pits with one of the churches only having graves for miners killed at Elemore Colliery.

They keep saying it X out of 33 miners out -- forgetting the real heroes the two guys that went DOWN..

Watching Miners so excited around a hole in the ground...

I thought Maggie Thatcher had died!!!

Nothing short of a miracle if you ask me - they were projecting a Xmas release, just goes to show what humanity can do if it really wants to!

Steve