Accident Report: Fatality Reference
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COAL MINE FATALITY - On Friday, May 16, 2008, a 24 year old electrician with 4 years of mining experience was fatally injured when he cut into an energized shuttle car trailing cable. The victim was attempting to make an electrical repair on the shuttle car when he used a cable cutter tool to cut into an energized lead.

Best Practices
- Personally lock-out and tag-out electrical circuits before you perform electrical work on a cable or component.
- Do not rely on anyone else to deenergize or disconnect a circuit.
- Maintain multiple locks and tags available to lock circuits.
- Maintain electrical meters and testing instruments in good condition to verify that the circuit is deenergized before beginning work.
- Communicate your intentions to work on an electrical circuit to ensure the circuit is, and remains, protected.
Additional Information
This is the ninth fatality reported in calendar year 2008 in the coal mining industry. As of this date in 2007, there were six fatalities reported in the coal mining industry. This is the second Electrical fatality in 2008. At this time in 2007, there were no fatalities in this classification.