Improving Self-Escape from Underground Coal Mines by Committee on Mine Safety: Essential Components of Self-Escape

Author:Committee on Mine Safety: Essential Components of Self-Escape
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: The National Academies Press
Published: 2013-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

RECOMMENDATION

The findings from research in the field of decision science, which can broadly be defined as the investigation of decision processes and communication strategies within and across people, is increasingly recognized as important for understanding human behavior across a variety of fields. To effectively self-escape in the event of a mine emergency, miners need to have more than knowledge of their equipment and surroundings; they must also have the psychological tools to make effective decisions and communicate successfully. Decision science research helps identify common thinking and reasoning pitfalls that can occur in stressful situations (see Box 4-1) and also informs the training that miners take part in as a means to ensure successful self-escape.

RECOMMENDATION 5: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health should use current decision science research to inform development of self-escape training, protocols, and materials for training for effective decision making during a mine emergency. Miners and mine operators should be knowledgeable of typical warning signals and able to determine if a true emergency exists and decide how to respond appropriately. All miners should be trained using standard protocols developed for predictable components of self-escape. This will allow miners to devote adequate attention to unexpected events and enhance situational awareness.

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1A tagline is a long heavy-duty rope with tethers spaced at even intervals, designed to link members of a mine crew together in the event of an emergency, particularly in dense smoke and little or no lighting.

2Texting possibilities exist in the absence of verbal communication that may permit limited text communication between surface communication centers and miners underground. However, the number of mines with this capability is relatively few, and the speed and depth of communication is limited.

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