2019 Missouri Revised Statutes
Title XVIII - Labor and Industrial Relations
Chapter 293 - Mining Regulations
Section 293.200 Shaft coal mine outlets and escapement shaft requirements — penalty.

Effective 28 Aug 1959

293.200. Shaft coal mine outlets and escapement shaft requirements — penalty. — 1. It is unlawful for any owner, agent or operator of any coal mine worked by shaft to employ or permit any person to work therein unless there are to every seam of coal worked in each mine at least two separate outlets, separated by natural strata of not less than three hundred feet in breadth, by which shafts or outlets distinct means of ingress and egress are always available to the persons employed in the mine; but it is not necessary for the two outlets to belong to the same mine if the persons employed therein have safe, ready and available means of ingress and egress by not less than two openings; the communication or roadway between the two openings, or the two openings furnished by a connection between two distinct mines, shall at all times be kept clean and of such width and height as to make the same safe and available for a speedy exit in case of accident.

2. The escapement shaft shall be fitted with safe and available appliances by which the persons employed in the mine may readily escape in case an accident occurs deranging the hoisting machinery at the main outlets, and such means or appliances for escape shall always be kept in a safe condition, and in no case shall an air shaft with a ventilating furnace at the bottom be construed to be an escapement shaft within the meaning of this section. The cage or cages and other means of egress shall at all times be available for the persons employed when there is no second outlet.

3. To all other coal mines, whether slopes or drifts, two such openings or outlets must be provided within twelve months after shipments of coal have commenced from such mine, and in case such outlets are not provided as herein stipulated, it shall not be lawful for the owner, agent or operator of such slope or drift to permit more than five persons to work therein at any one time.

4. Any owner, agent or operator of a coal mine in this state violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and for each offense, on conviction, shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not less than three nor more than twelve months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

­­--------

(L. 1959 S.B. 188 §§ 20, 21)