Accident Report: Fatality Reference
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COAL MINE FATALITY -On Wednesday, December 16, 2009, at approximately 8:40 pm, a 35-year old continuous miner operator with 12 years mining experience was fatally injured due to a roof fall. A piece of shale rock measuring 13 feet in length, 6 feet in width, and 13 to 16 inches in thickness fell on the victim while operating the remote-controlled continuous mining machine. The victim was cleaning up the right side of an extended cut, which cut the 5-Right crosscut into the No. 6 entry.
Best Practices
- Never exceed the maximum cut depth specified in the approved roof control plan.
- Do not mine extended cuts when adverse or subnormal roof conditions are present. The cut depth should be limited to 20 feet or less.
- Persons should never expose any portion of their body inby the second row of undisturbed permanent roof supports when extended cuts are being mined.
- Mine first cuts in a cross cut in a manner which reduces the radius of the outby corner to that specified in the roof control plan.
- Take down loose roof rock as the cut is mined.
- When developing rooms or panels off mains or sub mains, keep pillar block orientations consistent with the minimum entry and crosscut centers specified in the approved roof control plan.
Additional Information
This is the 18th fatality reported in calendar year 2009 in the coal mining industry. As of this date in 2008, there were 29 fatalities reported in the coal mining industry. This is the second Fall of Roof or Back fatality in 2009. At this time in 2008, there were four fatalities in this classification.