§ 27-353 — Safety cage and catches

A. It is unlawful for the operator of a mine to permit hoisting or lowering persons in a shaft deeper than three hundred feet except shafts in process of sinking, unless an iron-bonnetted safety cage equipped with gates at least five feet in height is used for hoisting and lowering the persons. Every cage or skip used for hoisting persons shall be provided with a safety catch of sufficient strength to hold the cage or skip with its maximum load at any point in the shaft in the event the hoisting cable breaks. The inspector shall require that cages and skips be equipped as required by this section and that on all cages the safety catches are kept well oiled and in good working condition.

B. In a shaft less than three hundred feet deep where no safety cage is used, and where cross-heads are used, platforms for employees to ride upon equipped with safety catches as required for cages and skips shall be provided.

C. Skips, the capacity of which exceeds five tons, running on steel guides in shafts designed primarily for the hoisting of rock, need not be equipped with safety catches. Such skips, however, shall be equipped with a platform and bonnet for the protection of the persons, who, as provided in this article, may legally ride the skips. Only persons engaged in shaft maintenance, pumpmen, skiptenders, supervisors and inspectors shall be permitted to be hoisted or lowered in such skips. No person, including those specifically mentioned in this paragraph, shall be permitted to ride a loaded skip.