UK Coal admits liability over colliery death

Britain's biggest coal mining firm has admitted that health and safety offences lead to the death of a miner at one of its pits.

UK Coal admitted charges of failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of workers and contractors at Kellingley Colliery in North Yorkshire.

The prosecution follows the death of miner Ian Cameron, 46, in October 2009.

Mr Cameron was killed when equipment fell on him at the pit, the largest remaining deep mine in Yorkshire.

Judge Peter Collier QC, presiding at Leeds Crown Court today accepted written guilty pleas from the firm.

Sentencing is to be deferred until the completion of a second trial, relating to the same incident, but concerning a different firm.

Worcester-based equipment company Joy Mining Machinery Ltd has pleaded not guilty to a charge of failing to ensure that people, including UK Coal, were provided with all necessary information about health and safety risks in relation to using powered roof supports at Kellingley.

The case is expected to be heard later this year at a date yet to be fixed.

Mr Cameron’s death was the third fatality at Kellingley colliery in the last three years.

In September 2008 miner Don Cook died in a rock fall and last September Gerry Gibson died in another underground incident.

Last year UK Coal was ordered to pay £1.2 million in fines and costs after it admitted health and safety breaches in relation to the deaths of four miners in four different incidents at pits in Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire.