The contracted miner is believed to have been on a routine break when her 4-wheel drive crossed into the path of a 250-tonne dump truck on Saturday night, crushing her vehicle.
Construction, Forestry and Electrical Union spokesman, Peter Jordan, says a lot of employees have been affected by the incident.
"When there’s a fatality on a mine site it’s an enormous impact upon fellow workers and in this particular case you’ve just got to work very closely with all employees to satisfy that their health and safety as well as their state of mind is right,” said Mr Jordan, “all employees should be able to go to work return home safely… it’s unfortunate that this female mine worker hasn’t been able to do that, I think that’s enough of an alarm bell to the industry to make sure that these incidents don’t occur again.”
Several agencies, including the CFEU, will be investigating the incident. Investigations will focus on how the woman missed several signs on her way to the T-intersection.
Mr Jordan said inadequate signage may be to blame.
“We’ll be examining what they mean by ‘give way signs’ as opposed to ‘stop signs’, because we’re told there way only a give way sign there… there has to be a complete overhaul of an understanding as to how, why and when light vehicles should interact such heavy equipment,” he said.
Police and inspectors from NSW Trade and Investment’s Mine Safety Investigation Unit are also investigating.
