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Mine-life: Dangers of Not Following Rules

Working underground is not without its hazards. To follow the rules is one of the easiest ways of staying safe. Just take time out to read the warning signs.

Check the lights on the slopes. The slope is the road joining one level to the next. Only one direction traffic is allowed at a time and so to facilitate this, there is a light with a pull-string switch. Whoever is going into the tunnel, switches on the light and switches it off again when they are through. Before you enter, check for the light. If it is off, put it on. If it is on, wait. Wait until it goes off before you proceed.

Vehicle Graveyard

All the vehicles underground are 4-wheel drive. For your safety and all the idiots out there, the gear levers have been locked into 4-wheel low range and the only gears you can access are reverse, first and second. The other gears are just unavailable. That way everybody has to drive slowly to minimise the number of accidents. The vehicles don’t last long down there and when they have done their time they are buried where they stand, parked at the end of the ever-growing tailings dumps. The diamond mine will never allow the vehicle to leave the property again. Nor will they be resold.

Don’t speed or drive recklessly. Look before you do anything. And then most of all, make sure that your head lamp is on your belt ready for use, at all times.

My Power Failure Error

A power failure underground is not something that happens all the time, but when it does there are rules that need to be followed. All work must cease. Due to the ventilation fans that have stopped. All vehicles need to come to a standstill.

If the power outage is more than eight hours then everybody has to make their way to the emergency elevator. It will start taking people out. Due to its smaller size, it can accommodate fewer people than the main elevator. The chance that you will get stuck underground is not so great, as mine safety has come a long way over the years.

Back when I was in the mines,  safety was actually great. Except when you, like I did, left your lamp in the tearoom while you were going to the store, to get some parts for a breakdown.

I was standing in the stores looking at the spare parts when, suddenly without warning, the lights when out. It was pitch dark. Dark like you cannot imagine. Are your eyes open or closed? You are not even sure. The darkness is complete and feels heavy on your shoulders. There is nothing to do but to wait for the lights to come back on. Just sit on the ground so that you do not get injured by walking around and perhaps bumping into one of the vehicles waiting for repair in the workshop.

After the first hour, you are thinking that maybe it would be better to make your way slowly to the tearoom and retrieve your light. You plan out the route you need to take, turn left to the gate of the storeroom, follow the fence to the wall and then slowly follow the wall all the way around to the offices. The tearoom is the first office with its door open. This must be how a blind man feels when he is in unknown territory. I am not in unknown territory. I know where everything is. But I still cannot see a thing. I creep along slowly, quietly. Got the wall. Now walk along it with outstretched arms and tentative fingers, so as to not meet the long metal rods sticking from the wall. They hold the extra hydraulic pipes and other rods.

Near Miss with Rescue Vehicle

I get all the way to the offices and then suddenly I hear a small vehicle coming up the slope. The light given off by its headlights gives me a chance to see where I am. I dash into the tearoom and grab my light. I pretend that I have been there all the time. I’m not silly enough to get trapped in the dark. I know better than that.

The vehicle was driven by one of the miners coming to check who was in the area and to take roll call. Part of what he had to do. While telling me to make my way down to a certain level where I will find the emergency elevator the lights came back on. The air started to move and refresh the mine. The heat started to abate and drop down to the normal levels, and work continued. Everyone is relieved it’s the end of the shift.

The target was not met that day, but the relief was a tangible thing. Every worker felt happy having come through a near disaster. Everyone breathed a sigh of gratitude.

Follow the rules or else!

Another place of danger was of course, the elevator shafts. Don’t stick your head into the shaft to look for the elevator. You’ll lose your head. The elevator will arrive when it’s meant to. In later years the mines put gates in front of the shafts to prevent these accidents. Don’t get too close to the crushers. They are called crushers for a reason. It can crush rock easily, so human bones are no competition for it. It has been tried and tested. The humans don’t win. When the signage says stay 50m back, stay 50m away. The sign is not there for you to debate over. It has been tried and tested. It is your life. Look after it, you only have the one.

Peter Waddell grew up in Kimberley, South Africa. He worked as diesel fitter and is now retired, living in China, writing, reading, cycling, exploring, taking photographs and married to a teacher

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