Coal Age Magazine - For nearly 100 years, Coal Age has been the magazine that readers can trust for guidance and insight on this important industry.
Issue link: https://coal.epubxp.com/i/438053
A single 104(a) citation was given to Dominion for the violation of 75.220(a)(1), which includes outlines for compliance with approved roof control plans. Finally, on August 15, federal officials released its findings from an investigation of a March 25, 2014, fatality at Gibson County Coal's Gibson mine in Princeton, Indiana, an underground operation that had suffered the loss of a worker in a machinery accident. It was the third death in coal in 2014. Mechanic trainee Timothy Memmer, 41, had just 23 weeks of mining experi- ence when he was killed while working on the mine's belt feeder. "The victim was cutting through the i n n e r l e f t s i d e p l a t e o f t h e c r a w l e r assembly that connects the hopper jack assemblies to the crawler frame," MSHA s a i d i n t h e r e p o r t . " W h e n t h e c u t w a s completed, the crawler assembly pivot- ed upward, pinning the victim between the crawler track and the frame of the feeder." Investigators concluded in its review that the accident occurred because mine m a n a g e m e n t d i d n o t e n s u r e t h a t s a f e work procedures were established for the repair being performed. "As a result, the feeder was not secure- ly blocked in position to protect all min- e r s f r o m t h e h a z a r d s o f s t o r e d e n e r g y sources, and the victim was positioned in a hazardous location for the work he was performing," the agency said. Following through with MSHA's out- lines, the mine operator developed and submitted a written action plan for com- pletion of the repair work on the feeder, as well as provisions for blocking other feeders for repair. The action plan includ- ed provisions for blocking under the frame on the dump end (outby) of the feeder, between the cat track and the frame of the feeder, and the inby end of the feeder. Other provisions related to rock dusting, lock-out/tag-out and gas checks were also included in the action plan, and all maintenance workers were trained on the action plan for repairing feeders. s a f e t y r e p o r t c o n t i n u e d December 2014 www.coalage.com 35 The scene of an underground accident that killed Arthur Gelentser III, a continuous mining machine operator at SunCoke Energy's Dominion No. 30 mine in Virginia.