While Endeavour Coal was facing court action over an incident where a miner at Appin had his foot shredded last month, it was under investigation for two other serious incidents at the mine.
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Last week Endeavour Coal was fined $300,000 over an incident where Jeffrey Rapley had the sole of his foot forn off and lost two toes.
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That case was taken to court by the NSW Resources Regulator, who is also investigating the miner over two other incidents in the last year.
On May 20, 2021, a miner had his left arm crushed in an accident.
He was travelling in a mine transport vehicle and had his arm on the window sill.
The driver drove past a piece of stowed equipment on the side of the mine, which crushed the miner's arm was crushed between the equipment and the vehicle.
In a second incident on July 18 this year - while Mr Rapley's case was being heard - three miners at Appin had to jump out of the way of a vehicle.
It is understood the vehicle was sent down without the miners' knowledge. One of them looked back and saw it coming and shouted the alarm.
He jumped into a manhole and the other two had to flatten themselves against the side of the mine.
They had been using a machine called a bolter and the hoses from the bolter got caught under the vehicle.
That dragged the bolter along where it hit one of the miners, breaking his leg.
The Resources Regulator is investigating the second incident and has carried out investigations about the first.
"The investigation regarding a dangerous incident that occurred on May 20, 2021 at Appin Colliery has recently been finalised," the regulator's Chief Inspector of Mines Garvin Burns said.
"Once the operator has been advised of the outcome of the investigation the report will be made publicly available on the Resources Regulator website."
A South32 spokesman said the rate of injuries had dropped over the last 12 months at Appin.
"While this is encouraging, we recognise that we must continue to improve our safety performance and we are working hard to do so," he said.
"In 2021, we partnered with a leading safety consultant to undertake a review of our safety performance and identify areas for improvement. This formed the foundation for our Safety Improvement Program, a three-year program of work designed to achieve a step-change in our safety performance, across South32 globally.
He said the company provided support for the man injured in 2021 and would be facilitating his return to work in the near future. South32 also modified their transporters to reduce the chance of a repeat incident.
The man injured last month is also receiving support, as are his family and colleagues, the spokesman said.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
