Analysis of the causes and safety countermeasures of coal mine accidents: A case study of coal mine accidents in China from 2018 to 2022

Abstract

Statistical data on coal mine safety accidents in China from 2018 to 2022 were obtained. Mathematical statistical methods were used to analyze the accident level, accident type, death toll, time, space, and other factors. Grounded theory (GT), case-based reasoning (CBR), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), interpretative structural model (ISM) and other methods were used to analyze the causes of coal mine accidents in detail, and the characteristics, accident-causing attributes and importance of coal mine accidents in China were explored. The results indicate that (1) according to the level and type of accident, the incidence of general accidents in coal mines is the highest, with both the number of roof accidents and the death toll accounting for the highest values. From the time and location of the accidents, coal mine accident-prone areas are concentrated in northern and southern China. May and July are accident-prone periods every year. (2) Using GT-CBR to analyze the causes of coal mine accidents, 18 key statements were extracted, and 11 initialization concepts were summarized. Ultimately, the causes were categorized into 4 core categories: human factors (H), machine factors (M), environmental factors (E), and organizational management factors (O). (3) A hierarchical structure model of the causes of accidents according to ISM was built. The weight and proportion of accidents and deaths were combined to evaluate the importance of accident-causing attributes. Human factor-induced accidents accounted for 71.6 % of all accidents, and the number of accident death caused by organization management factors was the largest, accounting for 54.8 %. Comprehensive analysis revealed that human and organization management factors are the most important causes of coal mine accidents