r/mining • u/rotbody • Aug 12 '26
Other What causes accidents in a modern mine?
Hey, yinz. Weird question. I’m a sci-fi writer working on a novel that heavily involves rare minerals mining on an alien planet. The mine is state-of-the art but poorly run, and I’m trying to do my research to make sure I’m not misrepresenting the mining industry as a whole. What are some bad things that could happen in a poorly-run mine, potentially resulting in loss of life? Give me your real worst-case scenarios, nightmare bosses included. The mine in question has both a surface mining and underground operation, so I’m interested in both.
Thanks for all your help!
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u/ChioTN3 Aug 12 '26
If you’re looking for real world examples, both MSHA (mine safety & health administration)and the Canadian health & safety org have fairly detailed reports of incidents & safety studies going back decades.
In terms of what I’ve heard of (I work in engineering related to, but not directly in mining): improper machine guarding, disregard safety measures, high walls collapsing/driving too close to them, people getting run over when they stand in equipments blind spots.
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u/SantaforGrownups1 Aug 12 '26
This is a great answer. Also look into an MSHA program called Fatalgram. It’s a report which details fatalities in the MSHA environment. Some are quite gruesome.
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u/rotbody Aug 12 '26
This is a huge help! Thank you!
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u/dylanr92 Aug 12 '26
It tends to happen while being badly trained, having high quotas that give high bonuses, as well as being over confident or trying to be like hey it’s late on Friday and it takes 2 hours to do it safely but 5 minutes do bypass all safety. For the preventable accidents.
It’s not just the actual cause of the accident but the reason behind it. This would also matter for a good book. I take my annual refresher course and my instructors always try to explain why it happened.
Sometimes it’s sad and even following all safety precautions accidents happen.
Also it was 2024 that had a major increase in drowning deaths of bulldozer and excavators, why having a simply glass breaker in the vehicle would have saved them, a $10 item, but not a required safety item.
They played a video one year of a man who had both bad maintenance and lack of getting his safety glass led to him having his eye impaled. He says he wishes he had taken the time to put on safety glasses as it would have instead been a near miss.
You can also include people who don’t die but suffer. Both silicosis and hearing loss is pretty common in long term miners. One basically hurt the lungs a tiny bit every day leading to having to be on oxygen and being out of breath just walking to the kitchen. And hearing loss doesn’t sound bad until you experience it, or the life changing tinnitus that often happens along side it. A tea kettle going off in your ear 24/7/365.
There are also great and bad companies. Some try their best and have their own rule that are stricter than MSHA and others that bend every rule.
Oh also both on the miner and the mine operators not paying for extra time off. They sometimes take off the PDM and hang it in a clean airway when you’re close to your daily limit, to explain that. It’s a dust monitor that measure how much dust you are exposed to. There is a federal limit that mandates they either move to a cleaner area for the rest of the day to not go over the limit or take the time off. People don’t want to lose pay and some mines don’t follow the clean work area suggestion or pay a full days wage if they leave early. Which then can cause silicosis.
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u/Small-Industry-2688 Aug 12 '26
These also point out the number of years a person involved in an accident has been at the site, and you'll find an overwhelming number associated with 0 years on site meaning they are green, usually contractors or suppliers that aren't familiar with the site in the first place.
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u/dylanr92 Aug 12 '26
In my refresher this year a mine was found guilty when a truck driver delivering (pipes?) was crushed to death when standing to close and the forklift driver lost the load. Turns out the truck driver hadn’t completed the mines safety course for over a year.
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u/Beanmachine314 Aug 12 '26
Vehicle incidents are, far and away, the leading cause of serious injury and fatalities, often due to operator complacency. Operator complacency is generally due to poor safety culture, whether that be lack of a safety program, production pressure from management or poor training.
Literally 75% of the safety incidents I've seen have been some sort of vehicle incident, with the remaining 25% being some sort of slip/trip/fall or overexertion/poor ergonomics.
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u/Valor816 Aug 12 '26
Honestly, it'd be a poor safety culture and management refusing to fix it.
People die because they're persuaded to do things that are dangerous, or they don't realize something is dangerous until their dead.
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Aug 12 '26
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u/BeeMaximum4009 Aug 12 '26
“The mine is state-of-the art but poorly run” Sounds like every mining company. It’s always been production over safety. They preach safety this or safety that until production comes to a halt or affected. Or miners production bonus isn’t tied into slowing down for safety that’s another problem. Safety gets excused on the workers side because they’ll bring home less on the pay check.
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u/Far-Manufacturer-43 Aug 12 '26
A higher than expected number of incidents seem to have something to do with conveyors.
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u/rotbody Aug 12 '26
Interesting. Do go on.
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u/Far-Manufacturer-43 Aug 12 '26
Don't fuck with conveyors. If you must fuck with conveyors, lock them out, and do it well. This is primarily an issue in mills, there are not many conveyors underground.
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u/Maldevinine Australia Aug 12 '26
Newer mines will run massive underground conveyors to move ore from the underground crushers to the surface. However, they have also started hanging the whole thing off the backs to make it harder to reach.
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u/Bushboy2000 Aug 12 '26
Underground conveyors for a Longwall Coal mine run very fast and the belt is full to the brim.
The mine I was at they ran at about 4 metres a second iirc and I think about 2000 tons an hour
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u/mistarzanasa Aug 12 '26
Plainly, any machinery should be "locked out" or rendered unable to start or move before being worked on. Many cases of someone unknowingly turning something on with someone in a dangerous position leading to injury or death. The other comment about msha reports and fatal grams is a going to be your best resource. Ive been in mining for 20 years and those are sobering. We've had 2 fatalities in the last few decades, the most recent was a nonemployee who made it on site and jumped off a couple of 50ft benches to escape security (rolled off the second one). And before that was a haul truck backing up over a pickup. Msha will have all of them, and all the technical details.
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u/ConstructionJust9064 Aug 12 '26
“That is what the procedure says, but this is how we actually do it” which is then followed by blatantly disregarding the procedure
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u/SpilltheCapitalTea Aug 12 '26
This is the regulator in NSW Australia that reports on reportable incidents in coal mines.
https://www.resources.nsw.gov.au/news/weekly-incident-summary
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u/Potential-Athlete325 Aug 12 '26
Also checkout the mining health and safety regulators in Western Australia and Queensland for similar information.
For a major modern underground accident look into Pike River in New Zealand. They have recently released a movie about it and there is a great book. Short précis is that a small mining company was putting profit before safety and cutting corners, e.g., only one usable entry and exit, not degassing the mine, ignoring warnings and workers actively disabling gas monitoring equipment.
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u/The-Outdoors-Man Aug 12 '26
Complacency, lack of proper tooling and lifting equipment, new people/inexperienced at the task, not rtfb-ing ( reading the fucking book )
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u/JackJak95 Aug 12 '26
Yeah, being used to the same thing everyday and not checking stuff because it was fine yesterday.
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u/Hornet-Fixer Aug 12 '26
Ultimately, it's about people making poor decisions, whether it's through ignorance, or deliberate.
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u/OrwellTheInfinite Aug 12 '26
Modern hiring practices and training standards. Employing the most brain dead people you can imagine and hold them to no account for their actions.
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u/SwampoO Aug 12 '26
In a broader sense. Accidents happen when something changes and we attack the problem without taking a second to reassess the situation. That and fatigue.
Work safe bros.
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u/tealeaves89 Aug 12 '26
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u/tealeaves89 Aug 12 '26
If you google the RSHQ hazards database, you’ll find an excel spreadsheet maintained by the Qld (Australia) Mining Regulator of major mining hazards. It includes hazard and energy types, as well as lists of safety alerts with greater details. You’ll need to understand if it’s an open cut or underground mine to better understand the nature of the hazards. The spreadsheet is actually a legislated resource that must be referenced when considering risk to workers in the mine to ensure known risk factors have been identified.
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u/pyragyrite Aug 12 '26
Slips trips and falls are #1. Power tool failures. Haulage; collision, crushing in pinch points. Fatal incidents very rare, unless you include heart attacks and cancer from the mining lifestyle. For some good RL examples visit the MSHA website and read some fatalgrams
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u/DSM202 Aug 12 '26
Big decisions are made by shareholders. These shareholders don’t plan to keep their shares long term, so they make choices that get them immediate profit rather than planning for the future. They cut corners on things like the structural integrity of buildings (like head frames and mills), the new development of underground workings, modern safety systems, employee training, etc.
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u/stulti_auri Aug 12 '26
Rock mass failures would be the big scary casualty event that geologists are most concerned with. I guess in space the general lack of liquid water would make this less of an issue. As mentioned, MSHA maintain(ed?) a searchable database of All US mining fatalities, assuming the Trump administration didn't dismantle it as part of their mining cronyism.
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u/rotbody Aug 12 '26
Interesting. Thanks for the tip! I’m assuming rock mass failures are generally a result of erosion?
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u/stulti_auri Aug 12 '26
Generally it's from overloading or from groundwater overpressure. Broken rock can't hold up much, solid rock with no cleavages can hold a lot more, but they can all fail when pushed.
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u/rotbody Aug 12 '26
Good to know. One more question—does that cronyism show up much on the worker level? Like, do you see the impacts of that?
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u/stulti_auri Aug 12 '26
No the Cronyism rains money on suits that are running pump & dump "mining" ventures. Rarely do they build a mine. God forbid they try. This is where you really see safety problems where an undercapitalized rinky-dink company actually opens a mine.
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u/stulti_auri Aug 12 '26
I guess I should say, all mining is undercapitalized due to tech/AI investment these days. To play Devil's Advocate, this is why the industry is flocking to Trump right now.
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u/porty1119 Aug 12 '26
This is where you really see safety problems where an undercapitalized rinky-dink company actually opens a mine.
I'm currently working for one of those. It's been a ride.
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u/stulti_auri Aug 12 '26
Looks like you are doing a pretty good job... or have good rock... from your photos!
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u/stulti_auri Aug 12 '26
Here's a video of one of the scariest "toe failures" I've ever seen, from China Toe Failure: coal mine in Alxa League of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
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u/WinOk4207 Aug 13 '26
After Years working underground, Doing mostly ground support has a job, overtime you get to READ the ground, what,s good & what,s bad, & what Not to touch, & time to Get out of there
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u/Acceptable_Land_Grab Aug 12 '26
We just had an excavator operator attempt to cut an acetylene bottle in half with their bucket. It exploded and lit a diesel tidy tank on fire. Result of miss-communication about the status of the bottles and general lack of forethought from the operator.
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u/rockfire Aug 12 '26
The corporation needs more production and encourages short cuts to get it. Turns a blind eye to safety concerns, and actively encourages the short cuts.
Labour is encouraged to take safety short cuts because bonus is tied to production. Safety interlocks are disabled, sensors plugged, maintenance is neglected and machines are pushed to their limits.
Rock slides and cave ins, explosives, hazardous environments, machine failures, etc.
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u/wait4theanswer Aug 12 '26
I guess if we know a bit more about your mine it could help. If it is another planet then does it have a respirable atmosphere for humans? If not, does it have an atmosphere at all? How does gravity compare to earth?
Will the mine be operated by humans with breathing apparatus or robots (including autonomous vehicles) or alien beings or a combination thereof?
Is the planet kind of "frontier" or a bit of an established location with supply chains etc?
I'm just asking because it can help us to give you some risks that fit better with your story
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u/Direct-Refuse9058 Aug 12 '26
Been in mining in Australia for years, autonomous haulage for five. Reckon complacency is the biggest cause of incidents we get, especially around the robots.
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Aug 12 '26
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u/InternationalBeing41 Aug 12 '26
Lifting. Anytime someone uses a crane or hoist, there is a risk of an accident. It could be a broken sling, load shifting or swinging, or objects dropping. I know someone who was trying to install a pipe and lifting too hard to line it up, which caused it to slip and take off a finger. Someone also had a crane hook holding up a dump truck gate while doing some welding in a dump box, and someone called out to him, so he looked out just as the hook slipped. It squished his head like a grapefruit. Another guy stretched a tow cable across a highway, and a buddy was decapitated because there were no signs or barricades up. Electrocution is also a risk. Someone was in a bucket, and the operator brought it too close to a power line, so they were electrocuted. I used to work on the ice roads and know a few guys who have gone through the ice and died that way. Plane and helicopter crashes are usually experienced by exploration crews. Driving over the pit wall or getting squished by a large truck happens occasionally. I'm kind of glad I don't do that work anymore.
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u/No-Wishbone-1341 Aug 12 '26
Typically going to see serious safety incidents or fatalities with confined spaces, HME (Heavy Mobile Equipment), LOTO (lock out tag out), rockfalls (surface or UG), lifting (as in using a crane which is either fixed or mobile), bad air UG, or adverse/unintended chemical reactions creating noxious/poisonous fumes, etc.
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u/itsnotthatseriousbud Aug 12 '26
There are a few categories so it all depends.
There’s environmental, so earthquakes and rock faults for underground are large risks.
There is mechanical, so there conveyor belts, heavy equipment and a lot more. A lot of machinery at a mine is dangerous if not careful.
There’s chemical, so any chemical spills such as cyanide, acids and other chemicals.
There is engineering failures, they can cause things such as collapsing in underground
There is management failures, the list is long.
There is health, one main one is silica dust which causes silicosis.
There are many dangers in a modern mine site that can cause loss of life, even in countries such as Canada which have some of the highest safety regulations it can occur
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u/0hip Aug 12 '26
The most recent accidents in our area have been:
Worker killed when a haul truck reversed over a Ute
Worker almost killed when a haul truck almost reversed over a Ute
Worker killed when a Ute revered into a worker crushing him between the Ute and a truck
Bulldozer reversed over a Ute (empty)
Excavator swung into the cab of a bulldozer
Worker almost killed when hit by a rotating dragline
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u/Suka_Blyad_ Aug 13 '26
In a modern, well run mine that’s in a reputable first world country like Canada, America, much of Europe the only real thing that would cause an accident is some freak incident or people not following SOP’s (standard operating procedure)
If you follow your SOP’s thoroughly you should never find yourself in a position that would cause incidents, most incidents are caused by incompetence, laziness, or some other type of human error
That being said there’s a saying that “you have to be some level of fucked to want to work in an underground mine” and that is beyond true, not everyone is fully competent and capable so human error does happen A LOT, ideally we mitigate it so that it doesn’t result in injury or death but we don’t live in an ideal world so that doesn’t always work
That being said, due to incompetence or whatever other reason there’s a plethora of things that can go wrong, ground support failing causing a fall of ground or something, people failing to adhere to barricades and getting ran over by heavy equipment or entering an area not fit for human life and passing out due to lack of air/air quality, etc. There’s too many to list really, what ideas do you have for these incidents I can maybe give you some insight
I’m typing this sitting 6900 feet underground hahaha
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u/Rodneysdad Aug 13 '26
Human error. I haven't heard of any AT'S (Autonomous trucks) running over LV'S (light vehicles). It wont be long until AI is incorporated in control and mapping out routes - theres an angle Ai killing of manned trucks to have control of operations.
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u/Kippa-King Aug 13 '26
Ah man! The list is extensive. On a cultural basis, a mine with a high emphasis on production targets as part of KPIs. This can make people rush. A culture of whitewashing small safety breaches or defects to keep production rolling. A culture where senior management is unapproachable. High staff turnover and a large population of inexperienced operators. At the ‘coal face’, poor machine guarding, not ensuring mobile plant and equipment is fundamentally stable when parking. There’s so much more.
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u/Safe-Ad5267 Aug 13 '26
I think it would be ventilation. That would be a massive challenge for something in space. Not just getting the mine air tight, but scrubbing the air of pollutants. You could have no humans in the mine and use remote vehicles, but then the next problem will be heat. if you remove the air, you remove the ability for the machines to stay cool. That heat doesn't go anywhere, in fact you need massive radiators to deal with it.
To get an idea, If you think about how much the rock weighs you still need to displace it to the surface. This costs the rock mass' potential energy at least. This can be different due to gravity differences on different planets, moons and asteroids. Airborne dust will also be an issue as nothing would cause it to settle in space. Course, the atmosphere doesn't have to be air, could be methane. The space suits better not exhaust too much O2 in an environment like that for risk of a fire.
We take for granted that we live in a relatively thin band of water/air mixture at the bottom of a gravity well. Up a few thousand you're at the edge of a breathable limit. High altitude mining has issues with diesel engines being less efficient, having less air molecules to meet dispersion requirements for pollutants and has less available air for cooling. Also the fans don't perform as well in the thin air. That before we've discussed processing which is going to be really difficult without water.
Nightmare scenario: fire near the refrigerant lines causes the refrigerant to thermally degraded to phosgene /HF gas. The mine cant be vented because its a closed loop. You have no way to dump the heat quickly besides venting the mine, you do that an you just lost what little breathable air you have.
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u/AdvanceAdvance Aug 13 '26
As a fictional answer, consider that the science of mining and geology is all based on our planet. Another planet might have formed differently and cause catastrophes not expected by geology. For example, a more rapidly cooling core could be causing slow shrinkage and the entire crust could be held up solely by compression. Even if nothing like this happens, I expect miners on an alien planet would be fearful of the unknown geology.
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Aug 13 '26
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u/Pugganoche Aug 13 '26
Being hit by mobile equipment
Caught in a Punch point (conveyors, doors closing, crushing equipment, equipment articulation points)
being struck by something really heavy when it’s being moved
Ground falls
Water/mud inrush
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u/Mission_Resist8367 Aug 13 '26
I was an underground exploration driller in a surface/underground mine. The engineers had a genius idea to open up the roof of the underground section for some reason. Possibly so they could push the surface rock down into a waiting hauler instead of using a larger digger to load on surface, if my memory serves correctly.
Just so happens the week they opened it up we had the biggest rainfall of the year. I was 1200m underground watching an abnormal amount of water rush down the driveway into the overflowing sump, preemptively shutting down the rig while glancing at our ute radio, waiting for the evacuation call to come through. We were the only team to wait for the call to leave.
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u/WinOk4207 Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
People, that think they know better.
We have been doing it this way for a 100 Years, But We been doing it this way , because it safer, Then some bright spark comes along & thinks of a better way ( his way) , thinks it is better & quicker.
It will save time, taking short cuts.
edit : No good after the fact
The old saying , don,t touch something you know nothing about.
If some old Bloke on the job is telling you something ,Listen to him , he has seen alot, I think he knows what he is talking about,
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u/YesterdayMajor1328 Aug 13 '26
Ive always said mines aren't dangerous, people are.
An industry that has no aptitude testing is bound to have a relatively high proportion of dullards who can't tell a screwdriver from a hammer.
Im.not saying that everyone in mining is dumb, most mining personal are very intelligent. But the outcomes for doing stupid things on a minesite are much more worse than a normal worksite.
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u/Efficient-State-7300 Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
SciFi state of the art would be high automation. I could see people getting in the path of automated equipment and getting crushed or seriously injured. Production waits for no man kind of thing.
Lack of sleep is a major cause. Eg fall asleep and your truck accelerates off a pit road.
Substance abuse could be but I'd imagine corporate would ban substances.
In automated equipment they often need a human on standby, and they need the human to do something to show they are still alert: eg, looking forward (eye tracking), press a button every sixty seconds, keep their foot pressed on a lever. Human worker might jack one of these (ie brick on the lever) so they can go for a walk or something and not stay at the station. This could lead to plot consequences.
Suspended loads. Someone under it. Strap breaks, crushed person. That happens. Should've had double strapped but cutting corners, or didn't inspect the straps due to busy morning. Anything possible.
I will also say a general layout of mines.
You generally have some variant of mine, processing plant, port. It's SciFi so you can take some liberties. Mine is where the valuable rock is. It's taken from there to the plant where it's processed from A into B, or from A into B and C. Then it's moved by rail or truck or whatever to port, where it can be loaded into ships to go offworld for sale.
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u/tangled_knotty_wench Aug 13 '26
Well, in the past fortnight, a 787 dump truck ran over a ute in the mine just down the road, and a guy in my industry got flattened by a heavy rigid truck.
Common factor in mine site injuries? Human error. Boffin shortcuts (someone with no idea about the role and tasks involved making decisions on how it is performed). Reactive thinking by prioritising production over good practice. Inexperience, and promotion of that inexperience because of a yesman personality.
Other issues that come to mind: Explosives mishandling Administrative miscommunication Communication failures (ie poor radio comms) Sink holes (always fun) Bizarre rock movements and geological conditions like unplanned, unknown voids
Sounds fun, interested to hear about your drafts :))
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u/freakerbell Australia Aug 13 '26
Look into mining maintenance shutdowns and the ‘gig’ economy. We’ve got inexperienced workers, doing 13 hour shifts on time sensitive, high risk work scopes…
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u/JaketheSnake2672 Aug 13 '26
People … long answer short people cause accident by feeling pressure to preform perceived pressure is real pressure and cutting corners to make up time or just because they are lazy is part of the problem , the other part is mines are run by accountants now and capex is not existent so old gear gets older and less reliable .
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u/jreddit0000 Aug 13 '26
You could watch the documentary about an actual mining operation on an asteroid which resulted in loss of life from two mining crews (4 people)
“Armageddon” (1998).
👍🏾🤪
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u/FlashyWitness4133 Aug 14 '26
Tokenistic safety measures that make the team complacent (Take5's, JHAs, half-hour long pre-start meetings,
A general over-focus on safety that is just done for show - when someone really gets hurt it all goes to shit.
Pretending to care for the safety of the team, while pushing production to unrealistic expectations and sweeping serious safety concerns under the rug.
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u/FlashyWitness4133 Aug 14 '26
What do you mean by "rare minerals mining on an alien planet" and that the mine has both surface and underground operations?
Rare Earth Elements are often mined from open pits (surface), as there are natural near-surface processes that have enriched the ore that don't occur underground. So you wouldn't be digging too deep to warrant an underground mine with shafts and drives etc.
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u/vbpoweredwindmill Aug 14 '26
Boring answer but something like 70% I think of fatalities in aus is people finding new ways to get run over by haul trucks.
Maintainers often find creative ways to cut parts of their fingers off.
Wheel/tyre assemblies can and will crush you all the way to death if they fall.
I've grabbed a few people's shirts and pulled them out of crush zones, pulled them away from pressurised lines they were undoing etc etc.
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u/HurryAcceptable9242 Aug 15 '26
The fact that you said yinz indicates you're possibly from a very specific pocket of the Midwest, specifically mid- Missouri. Close?
But moving on ... people getting run over by huge trucks is common. People being in the hazard zone during blasting ops. Poorly maintained rotating equipment catching on fire from overheating bearings. Rocks getting stuck in the crusher and people doing stupid dangerous things to clear it. Loose sleeves or hair around rotating parts. Turning up to shift high or drunk, or both. Jumping down off truck ladder and injuring back / other joints.
Alien planet? Super fine dust destroying seals faster than predicted, resulting in unplanned down time waiting for replacements from off world, resulting in crew being pressured to "just make it work". Oh and if you're in a no oxygen environment that changes how stuff interacts with the "air".
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u/Brave-Dragonfly3798 Aug 15 '26
Crush injuries are the big one. People getting caught between equipment and the walls, or people getting caught in conveyors, run over by mining machinery, roof falls, or just chunks of rock falling. People also being engulfed by falling overburden. Also large rock falls can cause huge blasts of wind as the tunnels are displaced, forcing it up through the tunnels at huge speed, picking up debris and even machinery, this is called an outburst. In some mines, gases are a problem, so methane which is explosive, or carbon monoxide, or hydrogen sulphide, both of which are lethal. In coal mines, dust explosions are a major risk. Also electrical hazards are everywhere because of the extremely high currents used by mining equipment. Also sometimes miners will tunnel into a water body and be submerged. Coal also has a habit of storing pockets of highly compressed methane, which explodes when exposed by the cutting heads of mining equipment, throwing tones of coal at warp speed straight up the tunnel. Also injection by high pressure hydraulic fluid is a hazard that occurs, often when stupidly high pressure hydraulic lines get a tiny hole and the miner mines brushes against it or runs their hands along the line. There is also the occasional explosive accident, might be an unplanned detonation, might be a major calculation error on the quantity used. There are more, but these are the major one’s.
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u/fpaveteran87 Aug 16 '26
Underground most accidents are caused by slips, trips, falls, material handling (everything is heavy and lots of sharp stuff), electrical shock/burns, sharp rocks (rocks often times break along a layer of strata and can be sharp similar to obsidian arrowheads), mobile equipment running over or pinning people, oxygen deprivation, explosive pressure waves, burrs/splinters on metal roof support, etc etc.
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Aug 18 '26
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u/smalltall Aug 18 '26
People often rush under a perception of pressure to complete certain tasks on time. I work in drill and blast and trying to make the firing time deadline is a contributing factor to a lot of silly mistakes rushing. This is compounded by long hours and long rosters, night shift, and working in very hot conditions - particularly deep underground.
Disconnect between engineering and operations is also a classic for a stuff up.
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u/Additional-Chance398 10d ago
Most of the time people being idiot, not respecting machine and equipment safe distance. For a book being driven over by a gigantic piece of equipment would work well
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