SOUTH AFRICA: ORKNEY: GOLD MINE ACCIDENT UPDATE
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- Опубликовано: 20 июл 2015
- (11 May 1995) English/Nat
Rescue workers have started the grim task of lifting the bodies of at least 100 men killed in a gold mine accident in South Africa.
They died on Wednesday when a locomotive plunged onto an elevator cage carrying workers on the night shift at the mine in Orkney.
Some of the dead are thought to be from neighbouring countries, including Mozambique.
Bodies are being brought up from the mine shaft in Orkney, where some 100 gold miners plunged to their deaths after a train fell on top of their elevator.
Miners watched in shock as rescue workers carried mangled bodies and pieces of bodies wrapped in wool blankets out of the mine.
Witnesses at the scene said survivors seemed impossible, since the two-floor lift fell 1.4 miles (2 kms) below the surface.
The accident at the mine happened at the end of the night shift when workers piled into the elevator for the long ride to the surface.
The elevator cable snapped and the cage fell to the bottom of the
shaft - 2-thousand-3-hundred meters below the surface - where it was squashed to half its normal size by the weight of the locomotive.
SOUNDBITE:
"These two vehicles plunging down the shaft caught up with the cage, hit it with such intensity that the rope detached from the cage and the cage, fully loaded fell some 450 meters down the shaft to the bottom."
SUPERCAPTION: Dick Fisher, Regional general manager
President Nelson Mandela expressed shock at the accident.
SOUNDBITE:
"Apart from regretting the incident, I think we should suspend any firm comment until all the facts have been fully put before us."
SUPERCAPTION: Nelson Mandela, South African President
Union leaders called for an independent investigation, including foreign experts, to determine the cause.
SOUNDBITE:
The pointers already are very clear that there was gross negligence...It is a requirement that when a shift is hoisted there must be no loco in the shaft area."
SUPERCAPTION: Mantege Kwete, National Union of Mineworkers
Officials are saying it looks like human error caused the accident since the locomotive went through a safety barrier.
South Africa is the leading gold producer and has some of the deepest mines in the world.
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I worked on this mine when this happened, I was at that stage the Mine workers union rep for Vaal Reefs no5 shaft, looking at this brings back the memories of this day in 1995.... Seeing so many faces in this clip Black and white that have worked with me and have passed on I salute you.....Jan
I'm a Texas police officer. There is no way I would have allowed the media to record the bodies being brought out like thatbecause their family is going to see this and it's going to crush what little bit they have left,
This was largely stock footage and not of that event. There were almost no bodies larger than a torso left and the only way that it was determined that there were 104 bodies was because there were only 104 right thumbs recovered amongst the mess at the bottom, not to mention the pieces caught up in the buntings (rails in which the cages run, up in the shaft)
My father was one of the officials there. He told us that once they saw a photographer taking photos , he went over and confronted the guy. I believe that he intended to take photos of the condition of he bodies. I am thankful that so far no other of the bodies other than these has been shown. What I can say as per my fathers account is that some of the bodies were mangled beyond recognition so much that it actually resembled canned meat.
The footage looks real to me. It's the correct time period and it's the same mine. Back then they didn't use stock footage nearly as much as they do now.
@@crushnkill I agree. I recognised my father in some of the footage. Also , the top half of the cage wasn't as badly damaged as the bottom half , therefore some of the bodies was somewhat intact.
@@deniseklue8415 Hi Denise, something odd happened which meant I didn't see your original comment. I actually wrote my comment about 2 weeks ago (before you posted) and noticed in my saved tabs that my comment never sent, so I hit send on it (2 weeks later 😂) It's a coincidence we both commented on this video around the same time after nearly a year of silence.
In any case, I am sorry for what your father had to witness all those years ago and I'm sure it still affects him to this day. He did the right thing to confront the photographer that was going to take photos of the bodies/human remains.
😢