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.
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