A Study of the Risky Positioning Behaviour of Operators of Remote Control Mining Equipment By CJ Pitzer

This study investigates the risky positioning behaviour of underground coal mine employees, specifically the behaviour of drivers of remote controlled continuous miners. The patterns of behaviour of these employees are of particular interest, not only because of a series of fatal accidents in New South Wales coal mines with such equipment, but also because of the lack of scientific enquiry of risk-taking behaviours of coal miners in Australia in general. The study was done at eight underground coal mines, where the standard operating procedures of those mines were used to assess the degree of compliance with the procedures on each mine. Possible causal factors for such risky positioning are also identified and analysed in this report. Generally, for some routine tasks, the level of compliance was found to be quite high, while for other non-routine tasks, compliance was found to be extremely low in some cases. Importantly, it was found that knowledge of, and employees inclination to, comply with procedures played only a limited role in employees decisions on where to stand, and the effectiveness of such procedures is doubtful. Risk-taking played a significant role in the behaviour of employees, with safety considerations only a tertiary consideration for their positioning decisions. The study outlines areas of future research, proposed as phases 2 and 3 of the research project.