Safety Science 50 (2012) 745–750

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Safety Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ssci

Special Issue Article: The First International Symposium on Mine Safety Science and Engineering

Research on 10-year tendency of China coal mine accidents and the characteristics
of human factors q
Hong Chen ⇑, Hui Qi, Ruyin Long, Maolong Zhang
School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The trend of China coal mine accidents in the latest 10 years was studied and the human factors in these
Available online 9 September 2011 accidents were analyzed by multi-dimensional statistic analysis. It shows that the number of major coal
mine accidents and the death toll in the accidents were decreasing steadily, while sporadic death acci-
Keywords: dents still accounted for the largest percentage of deaths. Gas outburst accidents, gas explosion accidents
China coal mine accident and mine water accidents remained the major part of the whole story and subject to close attention.
Statistical analysis Among the causes of these accidents, human factors accounted for 94.09%, of which intentional violation,
Human factors characteristics
mismanagement and defective design accounted for 35.43%, 55.12%, 3.54% respectively. Improper oper-
Ten-year tendency
ational and management practices in which the safety system, procedures and specifications were
neglected or broken were still key roots of China coal mine accidents.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Coal production system is a complex system with dangerous
and dynamic characteristics that consists of natural condition,
derivative production and operation condition (e.g., equipment,
technical system and institution, etc.), and a number of active sub-
jects. A reasonable coal mine safety status was defined as ‘‘an
adaptive system running state where the coal mine natural pro-
duction and operation condition is under watching and control,
the derivative production and operation condition is in order and
adaptation, and the employees’ physical and mental status are
comfortable to reach a sustainable dynamic evolution and adjust-
ment’’ (Chen, 2008). Thus, if any part of this system has a out-of-
limit deviation, it would cause hidden danger and may lead to coal
mine accident. China had a higher record of coal mine accidents. It
is reported by the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety that
q
The First International Symposium on Mine Safety Science and Engineering
(ISMSSE2011) will be held in Beijing on October 26–29, 2011. The symposium is
authorized by the State Administration of Work Safety and is sponsored by China
Academy of Safety Science & Technology (CASST), China University of Mining &
Technology (Beijing) (CUMTB), Datong Coal Mine Group, McGill University (Canada)
and University of Wollongong (Australia) with participation from several other
universities from round the world, research institutes, professional associations and
large enterprises. The topics will focus on mines safety field: theory on mine safety
science & engineering technology, coal mine safety science & engineering technol-
ogy, metal and nonmetal mines safety science & engineering technology, petroleum
and natural gas exploitation safety science & engineering technology, mine safety
management and safety standardization science & technology, occupational health
and safety in mine, emergent rescue engineering technology in mine, etc.
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 13372210769; fax: +86 51683884573.
E-mail address: hongchenxz@163.com (H. Chen).
28,868 coal mine accidents occurred and 47,875 people died since
2001.
The serious situation of China coal mine safety has caused great
concern both in China and abroad. In the past 10 years, a number of
significant measures have been taken by Chinese government
authority in an effort to conquer this monster, such as ‘‘improve
the standard of coal mine industry admittance’’, ‘‘close coal mines
that are of small-scale or in bad production conditions’’, ‘‘promote
industry mergers and acquisitions’’, ‘‘enhance safety legislation’’,
and ‘‘establish independent coal mine safety monitoring system’’
(SACMS, 2009, 2010).
Overall, in the last 10 years, the amount of coal mine accidents
and deaths remained high in the first 5 years, then after 2005, the
number of accidents, the absolute number of deaths and death rate
per million tons dropped steadily, showing a declining trend. In
2010, the numbers of deaths in coal mine accidents were 2433,
and the death rate per million tons was 0.76, dropped by 57.09%
and 85.01% respectively when compared to 2001, though it is still
a high figure. We may take another example for comparison: on
April 5, 2010, in West Virginia, US, a gas explosion accident oc-
curred in Massey Energy Company, which resulting 29 deaths. This
figure was the highest in US since 1970. In 2010, the death toll
from all coal mine accidents occurred in US was 48, and the death
rate per million tons was 0.049.
Previously, a research of fatal accidents in China coal mines dur-
ing 1980–2000 showed that the human factor was the key direct
reason and accounted for up to 97.67% of total accidents (Chen,
2006).
In this paper, the following issues are focused through statistic
analysis: ‘‘What is the tendency about China coal mine accidents

0925-7535/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2011.08.040
746 H. Chen et al. / Safety Science 50 (2012) 745–750

that happened in the latest 10 years?’’, ‘‘How much is the propor- vides the accidents into six grades, minor injury accident, serious
tion of human factors in the whole accidents causes?’’, ‘‘What are injury accident, death accident, major accident, catastrophic acci-
the detail and characteristics of typical unsafe behaviors in these dent, heavy catastrophic accident. According to it, a classification
coal mine accidents?’’. It is our hope that it shall be helpful to fully of China coal mine accidents was made. Accident with 1–2 people
understand the picture of China coal mine safety status and serves killed was classified as sporadic deaths accident, accident with 3–9
as a foundation for finding proper measures to bring the head ach- people killed was classified as major accident, with 10–29 people
ing problem under control. killed was classified as catastrophic accident, and with more than
30 people killed was classified as heavy catastrophic accident.
Fig. 2 shows the tendency of fatal accidents in each grade that hap-
2. Ten-year tendency of coal mine accidents
pened during 2001–2010.
It is obvious that, the death number is small in each sporadic
2.1. Variation tendency of the total quantity of coal mine
accident, but the number of sporadic accidents was large, and
accidents and death rate per million tons
therefore the cumulative death toll of the sporadic accidents was
far more than that of major accidents, as shown in Fig. 3.
During 2001–2010 period, the number of total accidents and
absolute deaths peaked at 2002, and then decreased year by year.
2.3. Structure of the accident types
The number of accidents dropped below 3000 and the deaths toll
also decreased to under 5000 for the first time in 2006. The death
By collecting and screening the basic information of 1900 cases
rate per million tons declined by 18.6% in average per year from
of fatal coal mine accidents that killed 3 or more people during
2001 to 2010, and it was the first time for the figure dropped down
2001–2010, we made an in-depth analysis about the structure of
below 1 in 2009. Overall, China coal production safety situation is
the accident types. Table 2 shows the total number of accidents
getting better, as shown in Table 1 and Fig. 1.
and deaths of each accident type.
It is shown in Fig. 4a and b that, the gas explosion accident,
2.2. Analysis of the accidents’ tendency based on the accident grade mine water accident, coal and gas outburst accident, roof accident,
as well as poisoning and suffocation accident were the five major
‘‘Interim Measure for coal mine accident investigation and types of accidents with high frequency and predominant death toll.
treatment’’ issued by State Administration of Coal Mine Safety di- More attention should be drawn to gas explosion, coal and gas out-
burst and mine water, as can be clearly seen from the figures.
Table 1
Total output, accidents, deaths, death rate per million tons of China coal mine from
2001 to 2010. 2.4. The characteristic of environment and the direct
causes of accidents
Year Output (one hundred Number of Deaths Death rate per
million tons) accidents million tons
In the selected 1900 cases of accidents, 443 cases gave informa-
2001 11.1 3082 5670 5.07
2002 14.2 4434 6995 4.94 tion of ‘‘the characteristic of environment’’ and 254 cases gave
2003 16.08 4087 6434 4.17 information of ‘‘direct causes’’. The characteristic of environment
2004 19.56 3639 6027 3.08 is the spatial distribution of accidents determined by the location,
2005 21.1 3341 5938 2.811 working conditions, geological features and other factors. Direct
2006 23.26 2945 4746 2.041
2007 25.36 2420 3786 1.485
cause of accidents is the material causes that directly led to the
2008 27.16 1901 3215 1.182 happening of the fatal coal mine accidents. Tables 3 and 4 show
2009 29.1 1616 2631 0.892 the information of ‘‘the characteristic of environment’’ and ‘‘direct
2010 32 1403 2433 0.760 causes’’ of different types of accidents.
Note: The output data and death rate per million tons data of 2010 are estimated Comparing with previous studies on the fatal accidents oc-
values, and the remaining data are from the website of State Administration of Coal curred in 1980–2000 (Chen, 2006), we could see that in recent
Mine Safety. 10 years, most coal mine accidents still occurred in the working

35 32
29.1 5000
30 4434
25 25.36 27.16 4000 4087
3639
23.26 3341
20 19.56 21.1 3000 3082 2945
15 14.2 16.08 2000
2420
1901 1616
10 11.1
5 1000 1403
0 0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
output (one hundred million tons) Number of accidents

8000 6
6995 5 5.07 4.94
6000 6434 6027
5670 5938 4.17
4
4746
4000 3786 3 3.08 2.811
3215 2.041
2631 2
2000 1.485 1.182 0.892
2433 1
0 0 0.76
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Deaths Death rate per million tons

Fig. 1. Overview of China coal mine production safety situation in latest 10 years.
 H. Chen et al. / Safety Science 50 (2012) 745–750 747

Fig. 2. China coal mine accidents tendency based on deaths grades.

78.00% 76.61%
76.00% 75.75%
74.29% 74.84%
74.00% 73.73%
72.00% 70.52%
70.00% 71.82% 70.14% 69.73%
68.00%
66.00% 65.71%
64.00%
62.00%
60.00%
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Fig. 3. Sporadic accident deaths ratio in all the China coal mine accident deaths.

Table 2 face, but it showed a new feature that the number of accidents oc-
Number and deaths of different type accidents in 2001–2010. curred in the heading face rose. The percentage of coal and gas
Accident types Number of Percentage Deaths Percentage
burst accidents that occurred in heading face rose up to 85.71%,
accidents while the water accidents occurred in heading face took a percent-
Gas explosion 675 35.53 6057 44.97
age of 78.95%. The reason might be related to the ubiquitous out-
Poisoning, suffocation 223 11.74 954 7.08 sourcing of heading work in China coal mines, which led to the
Coal and gas outburst 230 12.11 1611 11.96 serious ineffectiveness in implementing safety measures.
Coal dust explosion 7 0.37 95 0.71 The ‘‘direct causes’’ had a very high consistency between the
Fire 54 2.84 550 4.08
fatal accidents occurred in latest 10 years and that in 1980–2000.
Mine water accident 309 16.26 2273 16.87
Roof accident 297 15.63 1140 8.46 Most of the accidents were ‘‘human factors’’ accidents. The human
Transport and hoisting 51 2.68 226 1.68 factors in these accidents reflected that the employers or employ-
accident ees’ neglecting or breaking the regulations and procedures in their
Blasting accident 21 1.11 410 3.04 working process. It also had a high consistency that deliberate vio-
Other 33 1.74 154 1.14
lation, mismanagement and defective design were the key causes
Sum 1900 100.00 13,470 100.00 of all accidents occurred in last 10 years and in 1980–2000.

3.04%
(a) 1.11%
1.74%
Gas explosion (b) 1.14%
Gas explosion
2.68% 1.68%
Poisoning, suffocation Poisoning, suffocation
8.46%
15.63% Coal and gas outburst Coal and gas outburst

Dust explosion Dust explosion

35.53%
Fire 16.87% Fire

Mine water accident 44.97% Mine water accident

16.26% Roof accident Roof accident

Transport and hoisting 4.08% Transport and hoisting

accident accident
Blasting accident Blasting accident
0.71%
2.84% 11.74%
0.37% other other
11.96% 7.08%
12.11%

Fig. 4. (a) Percentage of different type accidents; (b) percentage of deaths of different type accidents.
748 H. Chen et al. / Safety Science 50 (2012) 745–750

Table 3
Environmental characteristics of fatal accidents (killed three people or more in one accident) occurred in latest 10 years.

Accident types Environment characteristics

Gas explosion Coal face; roadway head; heading face; gob area; roadway (level, airway, belt roadway, waste roadway); crossheading,
uphill and downhill; cross hole; open-off cut; shaft (belt shaft, inclined shaft); shaft station; water sump; coal bunker;
sealed space; panel
Poisoning or suffocation Gob area; coal face; roadway head; heading face; bottom of auxiliary shaft; roadway (winch roadway, coal roadway,
blind roadway); uphill; cross hole; shaft (inclined shaft, one-eyed well)
Coal and gas outburst Heading face; coal face; roadway (level, airway, gateway, haulage gateway); uphill and downhill; shaft (belt shaft,
inclined shaft); bottom of auxiliary shaft; cross hole
Coal dust explosion Coal face; heading face; level; chamber; coal bunker
Fire Coal face; heading face; roadway head; substation; hoist house; chamber; roadway (airway, belt roadway, cross
roadway); uphill and downhill; shaft (air shaft, auxiliary shaft, inclined shaft, vertical shaft); bottom of auxiliary shaft
Mine water accident Gob area; coal face; heading face; roadway head; shaft station; roadway (main roadway, airway, coal roadway, level,
haulage roadway); crossheading; uphill and downhill; water sump, inclined shaft
Roof accident Gob area; coal face; heading face; roadway head; roadway (main roadway, airway, level, haulage roadway); shaft
(auxiliary shaft, inclined shaft, main shaft); chute; coal bunker; uphill and downhill; cross hole
Transport and hoisting accident Shaft (auxiliary shaft, inclined shaft, main shaft); water sump; roadway; ground
Blasting accident Coal face; heading face; roadway; chamber; cross the border area
Other Blind roadway; shaft (vertical shaft, inclined shaft); heading face

Table 4
Direct causes of fatal accidents (killed three people or more in one accident) occurred in latest 10 years.

Accident types Direct causes

Gas explosion Illegal production; chaotic ventilation management (ventilation system with no or poor design, bad ventilation
management, ventilation leakage, local fan air circulation, turning on and off the local fan without permission,
ventilating in series, ventilating in the mode of short circuit, operating in the condition of lack of wind or no wind,
working under insufficient ventilation capacity); sealed area being fall in disrepair; illegal blasting (not to perform ‘‘to
check the gas three times in a burst’’, blasting with the wires exposed to the air or visible flame, connecting blasting
bus bar to wires directly, bulldozing); chaotic electromechanical equipment management (electromechanical
equipments with no blasting resistant property, cable breakage); conducting maintenance with power on;
dismantling the cap-lamp; smoking; not to evacuate the workers in time in case of power and wind failure; operating
with no measure; spontaneous combustion of coal seam; etc.
Poisoning or suffocation Illegal production; access dangerous areas without authorization (shut down mine or area); opening the sealed space
without permission; operating under lack of wind or no wind; not to evacuate workers in time in case of power and
wind failure; accessing the alert zone where the blasting smoke is still in thickness; gas monitoring is out of standard;
operating in the risky condition; to rescue with no measures; spontaneous combustion of coal seam; etc.
Coal and gas outburst Not carrying out the measures for outburst prevention; the gas pumping does not meet requirements; without ahead
drilling; illegal blasting; illegal drilling; commanding the workers recklessly; etc.
Coal dust explosion Not to take the necessary measures for dust prevention; chaotic ventilation management; blasting with the wires
exposed to the air; violation of regulation in welding; etc.
Fire Chaotic electromechanical equipment management (cable breakage, cable fire, cable short-circuit, mobile air
compressor fire); sealed area being fall in disrepair; illegal blasting; spontaneous combustion of coal seam; etc.
Mine water accident Illegal production; contrary to the principles of exploring water first and then heading; unclear hydrologic reporting;
mining in cross-border area; surface water intrusion; no formal design; commanding recklessly; etc.
Roof accident Illegal production; accessing dangerous areas without authorization; not executing ‘‘supporting first and then drawing
prop’’; operating without checking the wall and roof; operating in the risky condition; etc.
Transport and hoisting accident Not doing complete maintenance to the vehicles (winch’s rope, Tub’s connecting pin, etc.); illegal riding; walking out
of the prescriptive line underground; inclined transports not linked by insurance rope; etc.
Blasting accident Large storage of explosives underground; condition of explosive storage being out of standard; not to perform ‘‘to
check the gas three times in a burst’’; etc.
Other Accessing into hazardous areas without authorization; poor and weak scaffold; climbing work without the insurance
rope; operating in the risky condition; etc.

Table 5
Percentage of human factors in the fatal accidents (killed three people or more in one accident) occurred in the latest 10 years.

Human factor Gas Poisoning or Coal and gas Dust Fire Mine Roof Transport Blasting Others Totaling
explosion suffocation outburst explosion water accident and hoisting accident
accident accident
Deliberate violation 22 23 5 3 7 / 7 11 2 10 90
Misconduct of management 54 4 10 2 24 40 / / 5 1 140
Defective design 8 1 / / / / / / / / 9
Total accidents caused by human factors 84 28 15 5 31 40 7 11 7 11 239
Total accidents 84 28 19 5 33 49 7 11 7 11 254
Percentage of deliberate violation 26.19 82.14 26.32 60.00 21.21 / 100.00 100.00 16.67 90.91 35.43
Percentage of misconduct of management 64.29% 14.29 52.63 40.00 72.73 81.63 / / 83.33 9.09 55.12
Percentage of defective design 9.52 3.57 / / / / / / / / 3.54
Percentage of human factors 100.00 100.00 78.95 100.00 93.94 81.63 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 94.09
 H. Chen et al. / Safety Science 50 (2012) 745–750 749

3. Analysis on the distribution regularity of unsafe
behavior in the accidents
3.1. Analysis on the causes of each type of accident
In the previous study of China coal mine accidents during
1980–2000 (Chen, 2006), among the direct causes of accidents,
human factors account for 97.67%, of which deliberate violation
factors 45.89%, mismanagement factors 44.89% and defective de-
sign factors 6.90%. Deliberate violation is behavior violating safety
systems (regulations, procedures, etc.), that may cause accidents
directly. Mismanagement is a special human factor causing fatal
accidents, which shows as false management decision or improper
disposal of the accidents. Defective design is a kind of human error
behavior that can cause defect in the construction process of the
shafts, mining systems, ventilation systems, and electromechanical
systems, etc. It is a special human factor with hysteretic and
systematic characteristics that occurs at the beginning of the coal
production time chain.
Results of the analysis on the 254 cases of accidents which
occurred during 2001–2010 showed that: human factors account
for 94.09% in the direct causes, which means most accidents should
be classified as ‘‘Accountability accident’’. It was noteworthy that
the percentage of ‘‘mismanagement’’ was 55.12%, the deliberate
violation factors accounted for 35.43% and the deflective design
factors accounted for 3.54%. The percentages of human factors in
each type of accident are shown in Table 5.
3.2. Typical unsafe behaviors in the accidents
Table 6 summarized the 23 main types of operators’ deliberate
violation behaviors, accident’s types and the number of each type
accidents that caused by these behaviors. Table 7 summarized
the 19 main types of mismanagement behaviors, accident’s types
and the number of each type accidents that caused by the misman-
agement behaviors.
As a result, illegal production, illegal cross-border mining,
chaotic electromechanical management and chaotic ventilation
management were the most predominant ‘‘human factors’’ man-
agement errors in gas explosion accidents. In the study of 254 acci-
dents, these errors caused a total of 52 accidents. The same
behaviors were also the major causes of fire and water accidents
in coal mines, while the number was 35. Mine workers’ illegal
blasting and violation of the regulations of electromechanical oper-
ating procedures were the two most major causes of gas explosion
resulting in 17 accidents. Coal and gas outburst accidents are usu-
ally caused by lack of outburst prevention measures or impractical
outburst prevention measures. Poisoning and suffocation accidents
are usually caused by accessing dangerous areas (including shut
down area, blind roadway, gob, and sealed area) without authori-
zation and ‘‘blind rescue’’ behavior.
The key to reduce transport/lift accidents and roof accidents is
to effectively prevent and control the deliberate violation behav-
iors of the operating personnel. The prominent behaviors are
incomplete equipment maintenance (such as incomplete inspec-
tion of broken winch wire rope), construction work without check-
ing the wall and roof, not performing ‘‘supporting first and then
drawing prop’’ and so on. Incomplete maintenance is a ‘‘delay’’
behavior which will cause risks to the following-up operations,
making threats to others’ safety and health. Usually, this kind of
unsafe behavior only can be exposed while accidents occur.
Operating without checking the wall and roof and not performing
‘‘supporting first and then drawing prop’’ are procedural unsafe
behaviors. Operators may reduce the necessary operating

Table 6
Main types of deliberate violation behaviors and accidents caused by these behaviors.

Number Deliberate violation behaviors Type of accident Number of accident

1 Not performing ‘‘to check the gas three times in a Blasting against Gas explosion (2), blasting accident 4 17
burst’’ the regulations (2)
2 Blasting with the wires exposed to the air or visible Gas explosion (2), dust explosion (2), 11
flame fire (7)
3 Bulldozing Gas explosion (2) 2
4 Operating with power Gas explosion (9) 9
5 Not performing ‘‘power outages and power Gas explosion (2) 2
transmission’’ regulations
6 Smoking Gas explosion (1) 1
7 Dismantle the cap-lamp Gas explosion (1) 1
8 Accessing dangerous areas without authorization Poisoning or suffocation (12), gas 17
explosion (2), roof accident (2), Other
(1)
9 Accessing the alert zone where the blasting smoke Poisoning or suffocation (2) 2
is still in thickness
10 To rescue with no measures Poisoning or suffocation (7) 7
11 Leaving work without permission Gas explosion (2) 1
12 Operating in the risky condition Poisoning or suffocation (1), roof 6
accident (3), other (2)
13 Violation of regulation in welding Coal dust explosion (1) 1
14 Violation of regulation in drilling Coal and gas outburst (5) 5
15 Operating without checking the wall and roof first Roof accident (3) 3
16 Not executing ‘‘supporting first and then drawing Roof accident (1) 1
prop’’
17 Illegal walking or riding in the shafts and haulage Transport and hoisting accident (2) 2
gateway
18 Not doing complete maintenance to the vehicles Transport and hoisting accident (5), 7
(winch’s rope, mining car’s connecting pin, etc.) other (2)
19 Transporting in inclined roadways without linked Transport and hoisting accident (3) 3
safety rope
20 Walking out of the prescriptive line underground Transport and hoisting accident (1) 1
21 Not wearing respirators Poisoning or suffocation (1) 1
22 Climbing work without the safety rope Other (3) 3
23 Insecure scaffold Other (2) 2
750 H. Chen et al. / Safety Science 50 (2012) 745–750

Table 7
Main types of misconduct of management behaviors and accidents caused by these behaviors.

Number Mismanagement behaviors Type of accident Number

of
accident
1 Illegal production Gas explosion (12), fire (6), mine water 23
accident (5)
2 Commanding mining in cross-border area Gas explosion (2), mine water accident (8) 10
3 Bare cable joint, cable breakage, short circuit Chaotic electromechanical Gas explosion (6), fire (13) 19 27
equipment management
4 Electromechanical equipments with no blasting resistant Gas explosion (2), fire (3) 5
property, electromechanical equipments catching fire
5 Bad electromechanical equipment management Gas explosion (2), fire (1) 3
regulations
6 Inordinate ventilation system, no formal design Chaotic ventilation Gas explosion (11), poisoning or suffocation 12 30
management (1)
7 Turning on and off the local fan with no permission Gas explosion (2) 2
8 Local fan air circulation Gas explosion (4) 4
9 Operating in the condition of lack of wind or no wind Gas explosion (4), blasting accident (1) 6
10 Ventilating in the mode of short circuit, ventilating in Gas explosion (4) 4
series
11 Air leakage Gas explosion (2) 2
12 Sealed area being fall in disrepair Gas explosion (1), fire (1) 2
13 Not evacuating workers in time in case of power and wind Gas explosion (1), poisoning or suffocation (2) 3
failure
14 Not taking necessary measures for dust prevention Coal dust explosion (2) 2
15 Not carrying out the comprehensive measures for Coal and gas outburst (8) 8
outburst prevention
16 Taking error operating procedures Mine water accident (4) 4
17 Unclear hydrologic reporting and data Mine water accident (19) 19
18 Commanding recklessly despite of the signs of flooding, Mine water accident (4), coal and gas outburst 8
outburst and other hazards (2), poisoning or suffocation (1), other (1)
19 Storage of large amount of explosives underground Blasting accident (4) 4

procedures to save time and energy, while making threats to pro-
duction safety. These unsafe behaviors are always have character-
istics of ‘‘instantaneity’’ and ‘‘no trace’’, which cannot be found
easily and make challenges for traditional safety management.
4. Conclusions
Based on the above analysis, the following conclusions were
made:
 In the past 10 years, China coal mine accidents have been under
control in a way. With coal output growing significantly in
recent years, the number of major coal mine accidents and
the death toll keeps decreasing steadily. The mortality per mil-
lion tons dropped significantly from 5.07 in 2001 to 0.76 in
2010 with 85.01% totally drop down and average 18.06%
annually.
 The proportion of death toll from sporadic accidents remained
high, while that from major accidents was controlled effec-
tively. Analysis showed that among the total deaths, the per-
centage of the deaths from sporadic accidents has been
maintained at a relatively steady level of 70%, and had an
upward trend since 2006. Therefore, great attention should be
drawn to the prevention and control of sporadic accidents. In
fact, by studying various types of accidents in daily production
of coal mine enterprises, it has been found that unsafe behavior
leading to major accidents is the same as the common unsafe
behavior in daily production.
 Coal and gas outburst, gas explosion, and mine water accidents
should still be the main focus of the safety management.
 The study of the environmental characteristics and the direct
causes showed that: the majority of accidents occurred in the
working face, especially in the heading face; the direct causes
of accidents were still the behaviors that ‘‘neglecting or break-
ing the system regulations, procedures and norms’’.
 Among the causes of accidents in the latest 10 years, human
factors accounted for 94.09%, of which deliberate violation,
mismanagement and defective design accounted for 35.43%,
55.12%, 3.54% respectively.
 Very high attentions should be paid to prevent illegal production
in enterprise level, illegal cross-border mining, illegal construc-
tions, illegal blasting, chaotic electromechanical management,
chaotic ventilation management, and other unsafe behaviors in
safety management.
Acknowledgements
We thank Natural Science Foundation of China Project
(70671101, 71173217) and China Ministry of Education
Humanities and Social Science Project (10YJA630010) for financial
support.
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