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MSHA, as of early December, had not yet issued its final findings from its probe into the incident. However, in a fatalgram issued in the weeks following his death, it stressed best practices for other mines including maintaining safe distances from highwalls, proper equipment maintenance and consis- tent familiarity with the work environment. Machinery-related incidents have been a particularly concerning area for the nation's coal mines in 2014; Duncan's death was the fifth in the classification and the second machinery event at a sur- face mine. Fatality 11 — Utah The final death of the third quarter, and the 11 th of the year, occurred just hours a f t e r t h e d o z e r f a l l f r o m t h e A l a b a m a h i g h w a l l . T h e i n c i d e n t , c l a s s i f i e d b y MSHA as powered haulage, occurred at W e s t R i d g e R e s o u r c e s ' W e s t R i d g e underground mine in Carbon County, U t a h , j u s t a f t e r 1 a . m . l o c a l t i m e o n September 16. Shuttle car operator Alajandro Ramirez, 46, who was serving as a longwall support technician at the time of the accident, was operating a Wagner ST-2D mobile diesel can-setter to stockpile pallets when the unit articulated at the 23 rd East Longwall section, crushing him. Some local media outlets initially reported the event as a cave-in, but company and fed- eral officials quickly confirmed the activi- ties leading up to his death. Ramirez was just a few weeks shy of marking 11 years in mining, and had been at West Ridge for a little more than five- and-a-half years of that time. He had more than two years of experience with longwall support duties. It was another area of high incidence in 2014 in U.S. coal; the miner was the third killed in a powered haulage incident and, at press time, one other had occurred in October at a large Wyoming complex. A final report is still pending on this incident as well, but federal investigators did release a fatalgram with reminders for other mines to avoid pinch-point areas, perform thorough pre-operational examinations, and ensure the proper maintenance, function and control of equipment as designed and as modified. Final Reports Released In addition to investigating the trio of coal mining deaths that occurred s a f e t y r e p o r t c o n t i n u e d 32 www.coalage.com December 2014 On September 15, bulldozer operator Barry Duncan, was preparing a drill bench on top of a highwall in Alabama when his dozer traveled over the edge and fell about 50 ft to the bottom of the pit.