An empirical study for mines safety management through analysis on potential for accident reduction

The effective utilization of resources in seeking to reduce accidents in mines requires that the accident experiences of different mines should first be placed on a comparative footing. There could be many characteristics of belowground mines which influence the occurrence of accidents. Depending on the objective of the analysis, some of these characteristics can be treated as fixed, allowing least intervention; whereas others are changeable and treatable. This paper attempts to identify and define some such factors, which may have relationship with accident counts. The statistical significance of these factors has been tested under appropriate assumptions in a multivariate analysis. Based on the significant factors, mines have been classified, and a criterion for selection of mines having maximum potential for accident reduction has been developed.