Individual differences in accident susceptibility among coal miners.

A system for recording and describing underground accidents was introduced at a group of collieries in the Nottinghamshire coalfield in April, 1944. Three months were spent in a trial period to eliminate working problems and to enable the foremen, safety-officers, labour department, and others concerned to become familiar with the system. The records proper began on July 1, 1944. At the same time, detailed working records were taken from one colliery in the group. These working records were produced weekly, and showed for each man his place(s) of work, his occupation(s), and the number of shifts worked in each occupation in each place. The data had been collected for the calculation of wages and cost analysis. In January, 1947, the costing classification was changed. This meant either working with the two-and-a-half-year observational period then complete, or attempting to match data from two classifications to use a longer period. The additional labour and possibility of error if the latter course were attempted probably would outweigh the increase in information gained from a longer period of study. Thus the data used in this investigation were obtained in the period July, 1944, to December, 1946, inclusive.