On Friday, October 28, 2011, a 47-year old lead blaster and 23-year old blaster helper were killed when the 1-ton truck they were riding was struck and completely covered by fallen rock from a failed highwall. The victims were driving in the pit, past a trackhoe loading coal as they approached their work area. The rock reached approximately 80′ across the 100′ wide pit and struck the trackhoe and a haulage vehicle being loaded at the time of the accident.
Best Practices
- Train all miners to recognize hazardous highwall conditions.
- Look, Listen and Evaluate your highwall and pit conditions daily, especially after each rain, freeze, or thaw.
- Be your own examiner and find hazards before they find you.
- Maintain adequate lighting to aid in examinations of highwalls and pit during no light or low light situations.
- Observe and communicate highwall hazards immediately.
- Insure appropriate action is taken to remove the hazards associated with any anomaly that may appear in the highwall or pit.
- Ensure that personnel’s work or travel areas and mining systems or equipment are operating are a safe distance from the toe of the highwall.
- Follow safe job procedures.
Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf).