Questions about the safety procedures pertaining to shaft mining were front and centre on the second day of the coroner's inquest into the death of 47-year-old miner Ray Campeau.
Campeau was a maintenance mechanic at the Podolsky Mine, north of Capreol, for Dynatec Corp. A power outage on the galloway (a movable platform) haft halted work temporarily while the problem was assessed.
Campeau was one of four men on site trying to fix the problem, determined to be a motor controlling the winch system used for hoisting and lowering the jumbo drill in the shaft.
The crew discussed the braking system holding the jumbo drill in place before proceeding with the change and all were confident one braking system would hold without the other. None felt it was necessary to secure the jumbo drill by tying it off.
However, Reg Simon, the standard mechanical maintenance general foreman at Dynatec, testified to the court that he had told Campeau over and over again to secure the drill before changing the motor.
After receiving a phone call regarding the power outage, and the decision to make the switch had been made, Simon said “something just wasn't right,” and he felt the need to call down to the shaft again.
“I recalled a previous conversation about the hoist and securing it,” Simon explained. “In an incident months earlier, I spoke with another employee about what we would do if we had to change the motor.
“I had a gut feeling.”
He called the mechanic phone in the shaft and spoke with Campeau again before the switch began.
“I told him not to take the motor off without securing the jumbo...don't trust any brakes...make sure everything is secure,” Simon said in his testimony. “Ray told me, 'I'm a trained professional, I've done this lots of times before.'”
At the start of his testimony, the foreman noted, “Ray was probably one of the most experienced people to work in a shaft.” He also admitted Campeau was not a difficult person to communicate with.
Shortly after the phone call, Simon received word that an ambulance was needed.
Assistant Crown attorney Guy Roy asked Simon if there was any kind of written procedure on how to go about securing the jumbo drill.
“A written procedure? No,” he said. “Common sense to secure any piece of equipment? Yes.”
“Was there ever any discussions at meetings about what procedures you wanted followed in securing a jumbo?” Roy asked.
“No,” replied Simon. “It's common knowledge. All miners are trained how to secure something to a beam. No specifics were communicated as to how to secure it.”
However, he added there had never been a reason in the past to secure the drill.
“So you had an off-hand conversation and a gut feeling, not a system in place?” a member of the inquest panel said to Simon.
“If a worker told you he was taking safety steps based on their gut feeling, would that be good enough for you?” After a long pause, Simon quietly answered “No. It would not be.”
Stay tuned to NorthernLife.ca for more information on the Coroner's Inquest into the death of Ray Campeau.
