Statistical analysis of fatalities in underground coal mines in Pakistan

Abstract

The coal mining, being highly susceptible to accidents and fatalities, is considered amongst the most dangerous occupations. Historically, Pakistan has faced an alarmingly high rate of coal mine disasters. There is a general lack of country-wide data and subsequent research on the fatalities of coal miners in Pakistan. In this study, a multimodel statistical analysis of underground coal mine fatal accidents in Pakistan from 2010 to 2018 was carried out. The results indicate a total of 53 accidents resulting in 312 fatalities, where mine collapse caused 36% accidents and 51% fatalities. It is followed by gas explosion (19% accidents and 17% fatalities) and mine blasting (13% accidents and 16% fatalities). A positive correlation (0.71) exists between accidents and fatalities. Furthermore, mine collapse (\~8.42) and mine blasting (\~6.86) have the highest rate of fatalities per accident. Pakistan, with \~108.86%, has an alarmingly high average annual surge in rate of fatalities per million tons of coal production as compared to India (~-0.46%) and China (\~-23.81%). Finally, effective safety recommendations are proposed to reduce the fatalities in the underground coal mines of Pakistan.