Several serious occupational accidents have occurred in Estonia mine lately

Photo: Tairo Lutter / Virumaa Teataja

Prior to the accident on Monday in which a miner was killed there have been several pit roof downfalls in the Estonia oil shale mine in northeastern Estonia in which workers were injured, the regional newspaper Põhjarannik said.

Tiit Tabor, inspector-investigator with the Labor Inspectorate, said that in December falling rocks hit a miner installing support frames in a karstic area. The same happened a month ago, on January 17, when the wall of a working collapsed partially on a miner. The victim was hospitalzed with multiple fractures.

The CEO of the Eesti Energia mining arm Eesti Energia Kaevandused, Veljo Aleksandrov, said it cannot be concluded based on the statistics of recent months that accidents happen as a result of increased intensity of work. "We've invested a lot in modern technology in order to improve work conditions, but there are risks which inevitably remain. Unfortunately this holds true also for men who have worked in the mine for decades and know all the dangers entailed in this work very well," he said.

Before Monday's accident no fatal occupational accidents had happened in the oil shale mines of Estonia during five years. The last such accident happened in 2008 when a drilling machine pressed a middle aged man against a pillar.

A 53-year-old miner, identified by his first name as Valeri, was killed in a pit roof collapse Monday morning that happened as the victim and his partner were removing anchor bolts of the bars securing the ceiling. According to Tabor, the man who had a work record of more than 30 years with the mine was hit by a layer of rock about 10 centimeters thick and measuring from 10-15 square meters.

Tabor said that based on the initial observation the accident was caused by neglect of safety requirements. "The victim was hit by the layer of rock in an area where he should not have been after the supporting anchors were removed," he said. "The possibility that the roof might come down is not necessarily big, but it's always there."

The CEO, Veljo Aleksandrov, would not speculate about the cause of the accident as long as the investigation was under way but said that work in a mine unfortunately was dangerous. "We subject each accident to a very thorough analysis and make our conclusions in order to prevent the repetition similar cases," Aleksandrov said.

Police have opened an investigation.