METAL/NONMETAL MINE FATALITY - On April 26, 1997, a dragline operator and a dragline oiler were killed at a limestone quarry. The employees were relocating a dragline when the tram chain on one side of the machine came off. The dragline then slid into a 60-foot deep water-filled pit. The victims died from drowning. These deaths make a total of 27 fatalities reported in calendar year 1997 in the metal and nonmetal mining industries. As of this date in 1996, there were 16 fatalities reported in these industries. These deaths make a total of five fatalities classified as machinery in 1997. There were two machinery fatalities during the same period in 1996.

MSHA's Fatal Accident Investigation Report [FTL97M26]