COAL MINE FATALITY - On Monday, August 28, 2000, at about 12:40 am, a 53-year-old contract employee with 30 years mining experience and a 39-year-old contract employee with approximately 20 years mining experience were fatality injured when a rail mounted slope hoist mantrip ran away due to slack in the rope. The weight and speed of the car broke the rope when the slack was taken up. Overspeed safety devices on the brake car apparently failed to operate. The car descended to a curve near the bottom of the slope and wrecked. These two contract employees were the only passengers riding the mantrip at the time of the accident.

• Persons conducting daily inspections of hoisting equipment and brake cars should be provided with proper training.
  
  
• All safety devices on brake cars should be examined , tested daily and maintained in proper working order.
  
  
• Hoist control mechanisms should be operated as designed.
  
  
• Rollers and guide blocks should be maintained to allow proper operation of hoist ropes.
  
  
• Hoist ropes should be examined regularly and removed from service when wear limits are reached.

	Submit your own suggestion for a remedy to prevent this type of accident in the future. Please specify if you wish your submission to be anonymous or whether your name may be used. Please include the year of the fatality and the fatality number.

These are the twenty-third and twenty-fourth fatalities reported in calendar year 2000 in the coal mining industry. As of this date in 1999, there were twenty four fatalities. This is the first and second Hoisting type fatal accident reported in the coal mining industry in 2000. In 1999 there were no Hoisting type fatal accidents reported.

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This bulletin is part of the Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA) program to alert the mining industry in a timely manner of a tragic loss of life in the mines. We encourage you to consider the above information as you make safety decisions for or recommendations to your company or constituency. The information provided in this notice is based on preliminary data ONLY and does not represent final determinations regarding the nature of the incident or conclusions regarding the cause of the fatality.

For more information:
MSHA's Fatal Accident Investigation Report