On June 9, 2021, two miners, a 55 year old foreman with 24 years of experience and a 65 year old supervisor with 42 years’ experience*, were fatally injured at a mine with 1062 employees*, when a locomotive collided with the personnel carrier in which they were riding.
Best Practices:
- Install lights or other engineering controls to let miners know when it is safe to travel on track haulageways.
- Implement a communicaton system so that one person, who is not on any mobile equipment, has the sole authority to authorize travel on track haulageways.
- Establish and maintain effective communication protocols that require identification, location and intended travel, between locomotives, light vehicles and foot traffic.
- Train miners on proper traffic patterns and procedures.
Additional Information:
These are the 16th and 17th fatalities reported in 2021, and the 8th and 9th classified as “Powered Haulage.” (*details added by safeminers.com from MSHA data.)
Click here for: Preliminary Report (pdf), Final Report (pdf).