First Previous (PART III Safety, Health and Welfare (Mines)) Next (PART V Notification and Investigation of Accidents and Diseases)

7 1965

MINES AND QUARRIES ACT, 1965

PART IV.

Safety, Health and Welfare (Quarries).

Provisions for securing safe methods of working.

91. —(1) It shall be the duty of the manager of every quarry to secure that quarrying operations are so carried on as to avoid danger from falls whether within or outside the quarry and whether of the minerals worked or any other substance.

(2) The manager shall secure that no part of the face or sides of the quarry or any gallery thereon shall be so worked as to cause any overhanging.

(3) If an inspector is satisfied, having regard to the system of working and the natural condition of the minerals, that the requirement imposed by subsection (2) is unnecessary for safety, he may, by notice served on the owner, exempt the quarry or a specified part thereof from that requirement.

Safe means of access to working places.

92. —There shall be provided and maintained safe means of access to every place at a quarry at which any person has at any time to work.

Safety measures relating to vehicles running on rails.

93. —(1) So long as vehicles running on rails are used at a quarry, there shall be provided, maintained and used, either at the quarry or on the vehicles or both at the quarry and on the vehicles, such safety devices as are necessary to prevent the occurrence of accidents to persons by any such vehicles' running away; and every device shall be of a kind designed to assume automatically the position in which it operates for the purpose for which it is designed, save in a case where there is good reason for not providing a device of that kind.

(2) All necessary precautions shall be taken to protect from injury, in the event of any such vehicle running away, any person who, otherwise than as a matter of routine, is at work at a place in a quarry through which any such vehicle runs.

Lighting.

94. —It shall be the duty of the owner of every quarry—

(a) to secure the provision, in each part of the quarry in which persons work at a time when natural light is insufficient to enable them to work in safety and in each part of the quarry through which persons pass at a time when natural light is insufficient to enable them to pass in safety, of suitable and sufficient artificial lighting, and

(b) to secure that all apparatus for producing artificial lighting is properly maintained.

Dust precautions.

95. —(1) Where, in connection with the carrying on of a process at a quarry, elsewhere than in a building, there is given off dust of such character and in such quantity as to be likely to be injurious to the persons employed, it shall be the duty of the manager to ensure that such steps are taken as are necessary to protect those persons against inhalation of the dust.

(2) Where, in connection with the carrying on of any operations or process in a building at a quarry, there is given off dust of such character and in such quantity as to be likely to be injurious to the persons employed, it shall be the duty of the manager to ensure—

(a) that the entry of the dust into the air or its accumulation in any place in circumstances in which its accumulation in that place might be harmful is minimised by means of steps in that behalf taken as near as possible to the point of origin of the dust,

(b) that any of the dust which enters the air is trapped or so dispersed as to render it harmless, and

(c) that any of the dust which is not prevented from accumulating in a place in circumstances in which its accumulation in that place might be harmful is either systematically cleaned up and removed to a place where it cannot be harmful or treated in manner approved by the Minister for the purpose of rendering it harmless.

(3) Regulations may impose upon managers of quarries requirements with respect to the use of prescribed apparatus and the taking of prescribed steps for the purpose of attaining any of the objects mentioned in this section; and the regulations may provide either that compliance therewith by the manager of a quarry is to be taken, either without qualification or to a prescribed extent, as compliance with all or any of the requirements of this section or that compliance with the regulations by the manager of a quarry is not necessarily to be taken as compliance with any of the said requirements.

Miscellaneous provisions for securing safety of persons employed.

96. —(1) Regulations may provide, in relation to quarries, for—

(a) the generation, storage, transformation, transmission and use of electricity and the use, construction, installation, examination, repair, maintenance, alteration, adjustment and testing of electrical apparatus and electric cables;

(b) the supply, storage and use of blasting materials and devices;

(c) the provision and maintenance of apparatus for the purpose of preventing and combating outbreaks of fire.

(2) In this section “blasting materials and devices” has the same meaning as in section 66.

Application to quarries of certain sections of Part III.

97. —The sections of Part III mentioned in the Table shall apply to quarries with the substitution, for references to mines, of references to quarries and with the modifications indicated in the third column of the Table.

TABLE

Sections Applied to Quarries

Section

Subject-matter

Modifications

69

Means of escape from rooms in which there is a special risk of fire or gas.

76

Construction, maintenance, etc., of machinery and apparatus.

77

Fencing of exposed parts of machinery.

For “manager” substitute “owner.”

79

Air, gas and steam containers.

For “manager” substitute “owner.”

80

Loading of cranes, etc.

Omit the reference to winding apparatus in subsection (3).

81

Storage bins and hoppers.

82

Buildings and structures to be kept safe.

For “on the surface of” substitute “at.”

83

Safe means of access and safe means of employment.

For “on the surface of” substitute “at.”

84

Restriction on doing of work by unskilled persons.

For “manager” substitute “owner.”

85

First aid.

For “manager” substitute “owner.”

86

Lifting excessive weights.

90

Welfare regulations.