Darda ROCK SPLITTERS

Rescue Service:

In Poland, Darda Splitting devices are the main evacuation equipment used for accidents in hard coal mines as well as copper, zinc and methane pits. The Polish hard coal emergency service has been using splitting devices since the 1968 in salvage actions after pit collapses.
Since 1980, splitting machines have been used in all the technical rescue stations operated by the civil defence force. In addition, they form part of the basic equipment of Polish rescue forces participating in international disaster relief operations, such as the severe earthquake in Spitak, Armenia in 1988.

Actual Cases:

At 00.26 on 05.06.1993, a dispatcher at the Rudna pit summoned the rescue service to the Rudna Poelnena shaft, section C-23, where slabs of rock had broken away from the roof and trapped two miners. A Darda splitter demolished the slabs, allowing the rescue operation to be completed and the men to be rescued within 2.5 hours.
At 03.47 on 07.04.1995, the dispatcher at the Polk- owice mine sent the rescue team to the Polkowice Zachodnic (West) shaft, section G-31, where slabs of rock had trapped a miner. These were demolished with the aid of a splitting machine and the man was rescued in the space of only two hours.