Pitboy Trapped – Walking in Forbidden Road from Work

March 1938

Leeds Mercury – Monday 28 March 1938

Pitboy Trapped
Walking in Forbidden Road from Work

At the inquest to-day on a 14-year-old pit lad, Laurence Jepson, of Doncaster Road, Denaby, it was revealed that he left his work in Denaby Main Colliery before the end of the shift, travelled to the pit bottom along a forbidden road – a passage of the Parkgate seam – and was trapped.

He was missed for 15 minutes and then found dead on the forbidden road.

The Coroner (Mr. H. Carlile) said that whether he was riding on tubs or not was a matter of conjecture, but the evidence almost forced one to that view.

When found he had severe head injuries, but how received them is mystery. Police have ruled out the possibility of foul play.

The Coroner added that in his experience 90 per cent, of fatal accidents were caused by some small slackness on somebody’s part, and it seemed to him that if Jepson had been stopped from travelling along the road while the haulage rope was running, the accident would not have happened.

A verdict “Accidental death” was returned