From Hidden Risks to State Hazards: Research on the Enhancement of Coal Mine Risk Pre-control Management Pathways

This study focuses on the risk propagation pathways through which state hazards evolve into tangible hidden risks in coal mine production systems, aiming to enhance risk pre-control management. Grounded in the concept of "correlation → causation," a coal mine accident causation network was constructed from 974 accident investigation reports, comprising 16 risk causative nodes and 69 associative pathways. By integrating node centrality measures with associated cause sets, eight potential risk transmission pathways were identified, and a risk transmission structural model for state hazards in coal mine production was proposed. Empirical research was subsequently conducted to validate the hypothesized correlations and path relationships among risk variables. Based on these path relationships, a collaborative control scheme for state hazards was developed. The findings indicate that failures in external management trigger risk transmission within the internal organizational level of coal mining enterprises, initially causing disorder in organizational process activities, which negatively impacts the formulation and implementation of safety production plans. Risks then propagate along the accident chain, leading to defects in the technical environment and ultimately resulting in workers' direct unsafe behaviors.