Lancashire - SAFETY COMMANd POST

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 20th Year

Issue

Issue No.

8

Date Released

Apr 1967

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Lancashire - SAFETY COMMANd POST
2. 2East Midlands - COAL COUNTIES
3. 3Northumberland - YOUNG ENTERPRISE

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: Lancashire’s Parkside Colliery adopts army techniques in the war against accidents.
NCB Commentary - At Lancashire’s Parkside Colliery ELSIE is the nerve centre controlling underground operations. She’s no bird. Far from it. Elsie is the complex "Electronic Signal and Indication Equipment".
She’s reporting an emergency.
This is how the Colliery reacts to an accident.
This chart, where everyone can see it, records a head injury on No. 2 face.
But at Parkside they want to empty the board by concentrating on the day to-day job of preventing accidents.
This high powered team is working on the SAFETY MANAGEMENT SCHEME - sounds pompous - but it’s down to earth and it’s even more practical - at pit bottom.
The inspection team is looking in turn at all the Districts - going through them with a fine tooth comb.
After all the hazards and possible dangers have been noted they get together in the report room and list the jobs to be done.
They are typed out and put on the board. The target is to put everything right in 4 weeks.
These pieces of paper really make certain that the jobs are done. For all the safety team know that Mr. Houldsworth, the Agent/Manager, may check at any moment. the command post is the centre of accident prevention for the mine and as it’s in the Report Room, every supervisor sees it, and is spurred on to action.
This isn’t the end of the Safety Management Scheme. You name a hazard and they have it on the putt out boards.
Even fire drills wet or dry - are recorded.
At meetings of the Safety Committee past accidents are graphically analysed so that everyone can learn from misfortune. Here, a face accident cost a miner a serious head injury, and 2 pints of blood.
The committee will do their best to see that it couldn’t happen again.
This may seem a paper war, but its better to have a stretcher loaded with paper than with a human cargo.

Keywords

Safety devices

Locations

England; Lancashire

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
The National Archives COAL 32   /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963

Credits:

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit