November 6, 2008
INFORMATION
MEMORANDUM FOR NANCY
M. SAHAKIAN (FOH)
.......... EDWARD
P. CLAIR
.......... JEFFREY
A. DUNCAN
.......... GEORGE M. FESAK
.......... FELIX
A. QUINTANA
.......... MARK E. SKILES
.......... KEVIN G. STRICKLIN
FROM: .......... RICHARD
E. STICKLER 
.......... Acting
Assistant Secretary for
.......... Mine
Safety and Health
SUBJECT: .......... Process for Determining Chargeability of
.......... Fatal Accidents
The purpose of this memorandum is to revise
the membership of the Fatality Review Committee and to make a slight change to
the Fatal Injury Guideline Matri.� Dr. Nancy
M. Sahakian of the United States Public Health Service has replaced
Dr. Alfred Brooks on the Committee.�
Dr. Sahakian will serve as a full voting member of the committee and
will deliberate with the committee on all cases.� As a result, the Fatality Review Committee
has the following members:
a.
Director or Deputy Director of PEIR (Committee Chair)
b.
Director or Deputy Director of Technical Support
c.
Director or Deputy Director of Educational Policy and Development
d.
Associate or Deputy Associate Solicitor for MSHA
e.
Senior Program Management Consultant, Clinical Operations, Federal
Occupational Health
Question
3 of the Fatal Injury Guideline Matri has also been revised to the following:� �Was death due to homicide, suicide, or drug
overdose?�� This change is necessary to
address cases where death was directly caused by an overdose of drug(s).� The revised Fatal Injury Guideline Matri (copy
attached) will be applied when determining whether a death should be charged to
the mining industry.
As
in the past, the District Manager is initially responsible for determining
whether a death is to be counted as a reportable death in MSHA's official
statistics.� All decisions by the
District Manager are to be reviewed by the Administrator.
When
the evidence documented does not conclusively show that the death is
chargeable, the Administrator will request that MSHA's Fatality Review
Committee provide their review and decision.
The
decision made by the Fatality Review Committee should be unanimous and will be
final.� The decision of the Committee
will be provided to the Assistant Secretary, Deputy Assistant Secretaries, and
the appropriate Administrator.
Thank
you for your participation.
�
