DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF MINES SAFETY

DGMS (Tech) / Circular No. 2 / Dated Dhanbad. the 4th February 2004.
To.
All Owners, Agents and Managers of Opencast Mines Coal and Non-Coal Mines
Sub.: Accidents due to tippers in Opencast Mines.
Accidents due to tippers in small and medium sized opencast mines specially where the
vehicles are plying over hilly terrain have considerably increased in the recent past. Enquiries
into the above accidents have revealed that:Most of the accidents took place while going down the gradient with load. In dumpers
retarders are provided to slowdown the speed of the engine in such cases. In tippers
manufacturers are now providing exhauts brake as an extra fitment which on application.
closes the exhaust of the engine and simultaneously the fuel system to the engine is stopped.
The engine stars behaving like compressor which reduced the engine speed consideraly.
Firment of exhaust brake shall be henceforth be made mandatory in all tippers. The new
tippers to be procured shall be fitted with exhaust brake and action shall be taken to fit
exhaust brakes in the existing tipper within a specified time frame but not later than one year
from the date of issue of this circular.
In addition, parking brake and service brake of tippers shall be maintained in safe working
order as per the guideline circulated vide DGMS (Tech) Circular No. 3 of 1981. The
following precautions / actions shall also be taken :i) While going down the gradient, driver must lower the tipper with engine 'ON' and gears be
kept in maximum speed reduction stage. All drivers should be given adequate vocational
training about driving in hilly areas/downhill movement.
ii) Management must take proper responsibility for the road worthiness of all contractor's
vehicle before deploying them in the mines.
iii) Ramps with 1 in 10 gradient should not be more than 10 mtrs at one stretch.
iv) Starting of the tipper by self starter is mandatory. Push starting shall be totally prohibited.
I am of the opinion that the above mentioned precautions may help reduction of accidents
due to tippers. Hence, the recommendation may be strictly complied with in the interest of
safety.
Director- General of Mines Safety
18. Accidents due to failure of brake in tippers (tipping trucks)Tippers (tipping trucks)
are being increasingly used for transport of coal/mineral waste material in opencast mines.
These tippers are provided with service brakes which operate by air over hydraulic pressure
and parking brakes released by air pressure. Such tippers are causing a number of accidents
every year due to failure of brakes particularly where a vehicle is plying on gradient.
Inspections made by officers of this Directorate have revealed that parking brakes which
could stop the tipper in case of failure of service brakes were found defunct in most of the
tippers. Therefore in case of failure of service brakes on gradient, the tippers rolled down
causing accidents.
Parking brake in general is understood as a brake meant to hold a stationary vehicle in
stopped condition. But most of the manufactures now provide parking brakes which can stop
a moving vehicle in case of failure of service brakes.
Some of the models of tippers (e.g. TELCO Model 1210 of 1992) are provided with fail safe
parking brakes; in some other models of tippers.e.g. Tata 1510 & 1510A, the manufacturer
can provide full air brake system on request of purchasers. In case of leakage of air pressure
or pressure drop in air system in these models, the brakes are automatically applied on all the

four wheels. Ashok Leyland also provides this type of braking system on 'Comet' model
tippers.
In order to prevent accidents due to failure of brakes, you are requested to get the tippers
regularly checked for the braking system including parking brakes and ensure that the same
are maintained in order. Action may also be taken to introduce tippers with full air brake
system (and not air over hydraulic oil) in which the tipper stops immediately if the air
pressure drops in the brake system.
(Cir. Tech. 9/1999)
19. Provision of propeller shaft guard in dumpers and tippersWhile a tipping truck
loaded with coal was being driven up a haul road at a gradient of 1 in 16 in an opencast mine,
the propeller shaft suddenly broke, thus damaging the service brake. The tipper rolled back
for a distance and fell down in 5m deep waterlogged ditch causing fatal injuries to the driver.
There are several cases in which due to a mechanical failure (such as shearing of bolts etc.
the rear end of propeller shaft), the shaft would become free to dangle and consequently spin
violently over a wide are and thus smash the brake system components (servo chambers,
master cylinders as well as pneumatic and hydraulic lines,) which are in the vicinity and this
damage would in turn result almost immediately in brake failure.
To prevent possibility of failure in the above situation, BEML has provided a sturdy
safety guard for the propeller shaft in BH-36 dumpers. These are simple in design and can be
adopted to any type of dumpers easily.
In this connection attention is drawn to the DGMS Tech. Circular 3 of 1999. where in the
importance of other safety devices has also been highlighted.
Hence it is recommended that sturdy propeller shaft guard shall be provided in all types of
dumpers and tippers irrespective of tonnage/capacity in consultation with equipment
manufacturers.
(Cir. Tech. 10/1999)
20. Precaution while reversing vehiclesAccidents due to transportation machinery in
opencast mines continue to remain high and several such accidents have occurred while

reversing vehicles. The code of precautions for truck transport in opencast mines attached to
DGMS Circular No. 11 of 1973, requires audible warning signals before reversing. Circular
No. 7 of 1997 again drew attention of the industry to this hazard, requesting that a separate
horn with a sound different from normal horn of the vehicle should be provided for the
purpose. The driver should continue blowing this horn during reversing, and the horn should
be standardised in a mine so that whenever a horn having a particular sound is given, it would
become evident that a vehicle is being reversed. The possibilitly of incorporating horns which
operate automatically when the vehicle is reversed should also be explored.
In some of our mines where such audio visual warning have been provided, it is
observed that sometimes the level of sound of horn is so low so as to become ineffective and
in other case it is so high that it may even exceed the permissible limits, posing another
hazard. High sound level, besided causing hearing impairment and distraction, can even
drown sound warning emitted from nearby sources posing additional hazard. It is needless to
say the sound generated by the alarm should be such so as not to be shrouded by the sound of
the vehicle and the surrounding sources but at the same time should not be high enough to
cause hearing impairment and become a source of another hazard.
It is recommended that an audiovisual backup alarm system which adjusts itself to the
surrounding noise level maintaining minimum 5 dB (A) above the noise level may be used in
trucks and dumpers. Such alarm system have been developed in other countries (i.e. 'ECCO'
of USA) and marketed in India. These or similar product may be tried.
(Cir. Tech. 12/1999)

Government of India
Ministry of Labour & Employment
Directorate-General of Mines Safety

No. DGMS (Tech) Circular No. 12 Dhanbad, the 20th October, 2009
To,
The Owners, Agent and Manager of all Opencast Mines
Sub. : Provision of Rear Vision system in Equipments
Several accidents have occurred in opencast mines while reversing of
equipment
especially in dumpers/tippers. The manufactures provide only audio
visual alarm and
rear view mirrors in the equipment. Although the Audio Visual alarm
gives warning to
the work persons, the driver/ operator does not have a clear view of
the rear side of
the equipment. It is a practice in mines that the operator takes the
assistance of a
spotter while reversing. The spotters are exposed to danger of being
crushed by
equipment. The audio visual alarm warning at times may not provide
sufficient time
for the spotter and others to escape from the site and incidents/
accidents takes
place.

To avoid above kind of situations, it is strongly recommended that

REAR VISION
SYSTEM may be installed in the equipment especially in
dumpers/tippers. The system
shall be provided with a monitor which can be installed inside the cabin
of the
operator and an automatic switch on the reverse gear actuates ultra
low light camera
with sufficient number of infrared LEDS installed at rear of the vehicle
which provide
picture in nearly pitch dark and poor weather conditions and a clear
and sharp picture
is displayed on the monitor. The camera shall be housed in a fully
water proof case
which is shock and vibration resistance and suitable for high pressure
washing. The
two components shall be connected by a suitable detachable cable
with water proof
joints.
It may be noted that the above provisions is in addition to audio visual
alarm and rear
view mirrors which is already provided with the equipment.
It is recommended that in the interest of safety, necessary action shall
be taken to
provide Rear Vision system in equipments so as to eliminate the
chances of accidents
while reversing.