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.
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While coal fatalities slowed significantly over the rate seen in the second quarter, there were still three too many deaths in coal between July and September; while all of the victims had logged several years as miners in their respective areas, nearly no other factors were the same among the group. I t i s v e r y i m p o r t a n t t o n o t e t h a t , b a r r i n g a n y f u r t h e r r a s h e s o f f a t a l injuries in the nation's mines, U.S. coal could potentially have its safest year on record come December 31 (there were 11 c o a l m i n e r s k i l l e d o n t h e j o b a s o f September 30, and 15 as of Coal Age press t i m e ) . H o w e v e r , t h o s e m e n t h a t h a v e been taken are still leaving the industry w i t h m a n y q u e s t i o n s a n d l e s s o n s t o learn. Fatality 9 — Virginia The first half of the second quarter was relatively quiet; then, on August 20, came news of an electrical accident that left one worker dead at CONSOL Energy's B u c h a n a n N o . 1 m i n e n e a r R a v e n , Buchanan County. According to a pre- liminary report of the incident, mainte- nance supervisor Michael Justice, 41, was e l e c t r o c u t e d w h i l e t r o u b l e s h o o t i n g a Fletcher DDR-15A roof bolter. J u s t i c e , w h o h a d 1 9 y e a r s o f m i n i n g experience, had worked at Buchanan for more than four years and had been in his position for more than two years. While the final investigation report for t h e i n c i d e n t h a d n o t b e e n r e l e a s e d a t press time, federal investigators did note i n a f a t a l g r a m r e p o r t t h a t J u s t i c e h a d made contact with an energized compo- nent inside an explosion-proof enclo- sure. He had removed the enclosure's panel cover prior to performing electri- c a l w o r k o n t h e 6 0 0 V A C r o o f b o l t i n g machine when he was electrocuted. This death was the first since 2013 to be classified as electrical, and prompted the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administra- tion (MSHA) to issue best practices for all U.S. miners on lock-out/tag-out proce- dures, as well as written plans for electrical troubleshooting. Fatality 10 — Alabama A few weeks passed after Justice's death before there was news of another coal miner losing his life on the job. On September 15, a machinery accident at Black Warrior Minerals' Manchester oper- ation in Walker County, Alabama, resulted in the nation's 10 th fatality. Bulldozer operator Barry Duncan, 53, was preparing a drill bench on top of a highwall measuring about 50 ft in height when the incident occurred at the bitumi- nous surface operation. According to federal investigators in a preliminary report, Duncan was pushing consolidated material over the highwall's edge when his dozer traveled over the edge and fell to the bottom of the pit. Duncan was one of just 36 workers at the mine near Jasper. He had just marked his 28 th year of mining, 15 of it served at Manchester, and had operated a dozer for 12 years. sa f e t y r e p o rt B Y D O N N A S C H M I D T , F I E L D E D I T O R 30 www.coalage.com December 2014 Fatality review: 3 lives lost in 3Q Trio of experienced miners all killed in less than a month Shuttle car operator Alajandro Ramirez, a longwall support technician, was crushed by a Wagner ST-2D mobile diesel can-setter at the West Ridge operation in Utah on September 16.