Comment: All mining is dangerous and experienced drivers have accidents. How many experienced heavy duty truck drivers do we have in Pittsylvania County, Virginia to drive the same trucks in open pit uranium mining? Hard rock miners will come from West Virginia and Canada!
July 28, 2009
A contract employee at a mountaintop-removal mine near Cabin Creek was killed Tuesday when his truck overturned into a pond, state and federal officials said. By
Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A contract employee at a mountaintop-removal mine near Cabin Creek was killed Tuesday when his truck overturned into a pond, state and federal officials said.
The worker was identified Wednesday as 28-year-old Mark Gray of Belle. Gray is survived by his wife and a teenage daughter, officials said.
The accident occurred at the Samples Mine, operated by the Catenary Coal Co. subsidiary of Patriot Coal Corp. The worker was employed by the firm Hawkeye Construction of Robinson Creek, Ky., said Amy Louviere, spokeswoman for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The worker is the ninth coal miner in the U.S. and the second in West Virginia to die on the job in 2009, according to MSHA's official count.
Jama Jarrett, spokeswoman for the state Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training, said the worker was using an excavator, which overturned into a mine pond at the site.
But Louviere identified the equipment being used as an articulating truck, with a pivoting joint between the cab and trailer allowing it to turn more freely. Such vehicles can be especially tricky to operate because the rear trailer moves independently of the cab.
The Samples Mine is one of the largest surface mines in the state, though production last year dipped below 3 million tons for the first time in more than a decade.
Two years ago, the mine was targeted by state and federal investigators and received dozens of citations after management allowed the use of leftover military munitions from the Talon Manufacturing plant to be used along with traditional strip-mine explosives.
And since 2001, there have been at least three other deaths at the Samples Mine, with all of them bringing citations and fines against mine operators.
Earlier this year, a worker from an adjacent underground mine died in a single-vehicle accident while using a Samples Mine haul road as a shortcut home from work. State officials did not count the death as mining-related, but MSHA has yet to issue a formal finding on the matter.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
http://wvgazette.com/News/200907280373
July 28, 2009
A contract employee at a mountaintop-removal mine near Cabin Creek was killed Tuesday when his truck overturned into a pond, state and federal officials said. By
Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A contract employee at a mountaintop-removal mine near Cabin Creek was killed Tuesday when his truck overturned into a pond, state and federal officials said.
The worker was identified Wednesday as 28-year-old Mark Gray of Belle. Gray is survived by his wife and a teenage daughter, officials said.
The accident occurred at the Samples Mine, operated by the Catenary Coal Co. subsidiary of Patriot Coal Corp. The worker was employed by the firm Hawkeye Construction of Robinson Creek, Ky., said Amy Louviere, spokeswoman for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The worker is the ninth coal miner in the U.S. and the second in West Virginia to die on the job in 2009, according to MSHA's official count.
Jama Jarrett, spokeswoman for the state Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training, said the worker was using an excavator, which overturned into a mine pond at the site.
But Louviere identified the equipment being used as an articulating truck, with a pivoting joint between the cab and trailer allowing it to turn more freely. Such vehicles can be especially tricky to operate because the rear trailer moves independently of the cab.
The Samples Mine is one of the largest surface mines in the state, though production last year dipped below 3 million tons for the first time in more than a decade.
Two years ago, the mine was targeted by state and federal investigators and received dozens of citations after management allowed the use of leftover military munitions from the Talon Manufacturing plant to be used along with traditional strip-mine explosives.
And since 2001, there have been at least three other deaths at the Samples Mine, with all of them bringing citations and fines against mine operators.
Earlier this year, a worker from an adjacent underground mine died in a single-vehicle accident while using a Samples Mine haul road as a shortcut home from work. State officials did not count the death as mining-related, but MSHA has yet to issue a formal finding on the matter.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
http://wvgazette.com/News/200907280373
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