A moment's hesitation may have cost West Coast coalminer Bernard Green his life when the roof of the underground Roa Mine, near Blackball 30km from Greymouth, collapsed last year.
At an inquest in Greymouth yesterday, coroner Peter Roselli ruled that the 47-year-old died on September 8 of injuriesto the chest and pelvis combined with compression asphyxia.
The miner and his mining partner, John Connell, were drilling and blasting the coal face and using water hoses to wash the coal toward a sluice at the time of the collapse.
Solid Energy mines use mechanical monitors for this work but in smaller mines such as Roa the workers usually manhandle the hoses.
Mr Connell said Green was only a few metres ahead when a "dribble" of material from the roof signalled a cave-in was imminent.
He said: "We heard the mesh go, and ran; it happened in a split second."
His last view was of Green heading for the safety of the "rise", another tunnel leading in to the work area.
"The roof collapse was chasing me ... right on my tail. It chased me out of the pillar area and past the break line. I didn't stop running until I was past the next intersection, which was about 7 metres away," Mr Connell said.
Returning to the mound of rubble, he started digging for his friend but soon realised it was no use.
Other miners, including Green's son Royce, soon arrived but Mr Connell escorted him out believing he should not be there at that time.
After several hours of digging, he and the underground manager Glen Gibb worked their way around the debris and spotted a part of Green's visibility belt under the rubble.
Labour Department investigator David Bellett said he would not fault the mine or mining practices.
If Green had been on the same side of the wash as Mr Connell, he could have survived.
"He had gone towards the rise ... a 1-metre step to climb up to escape ... this may have caused a moment's hesitation, which proved fatal."
The coroner recommended a code of practice requiring all mines to have in place management plans covering the main risk areas, mining methods, strata management, infrastructure systems and emergency preparedness and response systems.
