Major accident analysis and prevention of coal mines in China from the year of 1949 to 2009

From the year of 1949 to the present, the China national coal output has been increasing quickly and became first in the world in 2009. But at the same time, major coal mining accidents still exist nowadays. In order to review the overall situation and provide information on major accidents of coal mines in China, we investigated 26 major coal mining accidents in China between the years of 1949 and 2009 through statistical methods, each of which led to more than 100 fatalities. Statistical characteristics about accident-related factors such as time, death toll, accident reasons, characters and nature of enterprise were analyzed. And some special conclusions have been achieved. For example, although we have made great progress, the safety situation in China coal mining industry is still serious, and the reasons for the mining accidents are all human errors which are not inevitable. Such results may be helpful to prevent major accidents in coal mines. Moreso, based on both the knowledge of other countries which have good safety situation nowadays and the safety management situation of China, we made suggestion on safety management of China coal mining. In conclusion, countermeasures were proposed in accordance with the results of statistical studies and the analyses of problems existed in coal mines, including the perfec- tion of safety supervision organization, the establishment of cooperating agency among government, coal mines and workers, the perfection of safety rules and regulations, the improvement of safety investment, the enhancement of safety training, the development of safety technique, and the development of emer- gency rescue technique and equipment.