Queensland halts Byerwen mine’s heavy trucks after second fatality in a month
Queensland’s mining regulator has issued a directive suspending the use of all heavy vehicles at the Byerwen coal mine after Thursday’s fatal accident.
According to the Mining and Energy Union (MEU), the fatality occurred when a 793 haul truck ran over a light vehicle at around 13:00 on Thursday.
Paramedics and emergency services attended the site but were unable to revive the worker.
This is the second fatality in less than a month at QCoal’s Byerwen mine.
This directive effectively stops most operations at the mine, said Resources Safety and Health Queensland CEO Rob Djukic.
"QCoal has chosen to suspend operations at the mine, but we've taken this extra step to ensure activities involving heavy vehicles cannot take place until our inspector is satisfied that it is safe to do so.
"We need to allow the mine to continue with some activities because it would be unsafe if it were to cease operating suddenly.
"We haven't ruled out further action so our inspectors will continue to assess the site in the coming days,” said Djukic.
Mining services group Macmahon on Friday confirmed the fatality and committed to thoroughly investigate the incident.
Meanwhile, the MEU’s Queensland president, Mitch Hughes, said workers at Byerwen coal mine had been left traumatised by the latest fatality.
“Workers have not even had a chance to properly process the fatality of Chris Schloss who they lost less than three weeks ago.
“When they found out another one of their workmates died at the mine, it was earth-shattering.”
Hughes said the events showed that QCoal and MacMahon could not be trusted to operate safely.
“The MEU believes that the only reasonable course of action is for QCoal to cease operations immediately.
“As for QCoal’s future, unless they can demonstrate that they can operate safely, we believe that their licence for the mining lease should be removed.”
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