A worker has died after being hit by a truck at an Upper Hunter coal mine.<\/p>\n
The fatality occurred at the United Wambo Open Cut mine, approximately 23 kilometres west of Singleton.<\/p>\n
Emergency services were called to the site shortly after 1:00pm, where they located a man, believed to be in his 50s, who had been hit by a truck.<\/p>\n
The man, who is yet to be formally identified, could not be revived.<\/p>\n
The mine is a joint venture between mining companies Glencore and Peabody.<\/p>\n
In a statement, CEO Peter Sharpe said it was “tragic news”.<\/p>\n
“Our sincere condolences go out to the worker’s family, friends and colleagues,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Our immediate focus is on providing support to the worker’s family and our employees.”<\/p>\n
Glencore said emergency services and police were on site, and mining operations were being suspended.<\/p>\n
The Mining and Energy Union’s Northern Mining and NSW Energy District president Robin Williams said the union was sending condolences to the worker’s loved ones.<\/p>\n
“Every worker has the right to come home safely at the end of every shift,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Any workplace fatality is one too many.<\/p>\n
“Right now, the focus needs to be on supporting the workforce and respecting the privacy of the family.”<\/p>\n
Mr Williams said a union safety officer was on site investigating.<\/p>\n
“It’s important the relevant authorities are given the time and space to conduct a thorough investigation so the circumstances of this tragedy can be fully understood,” he said.<\/p>\n
Member for Upper Hunter Dave Layzell said it was an “absolute tragedy” for the community.<\/p>\n
“This is a tight-knit community and a lot of people will know that particular worker and be hurting.<\/p>\n
“This is a reminder that these are potentially dangerous workplaces and we have to do everything we can to make sure they are safe,” he said.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred on the same day the NSW Minerals Council’s Mining Health, Safety, Environment and Community conference kicked off in the Hunter Valley.<\/p>\n
Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee said it was a “sombre reminder” of the importance of workplace safety.<\/p>\n
“The thoughts of tens of thousands of miners across NSW will tonight be with the family and colleagues of the deceased,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A worker has died after being hit by a truck at an Upper Hunter coal mine. The fatality…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,235541,1300,123608,62900,414329,44,62130,221543,25976,414330],"class_list":["post-842279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-colliery","tag-death","tag-glencore","tag-mine","tag-miner","tag-news","tag-peabody","tag-singleton","tag-truck","tag-wambo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}