On June 27, 2016, a 61-year old Mine Superintendent, with 24 years of experience, was killed at a limestone quarry. The victim was building a ramp to the lower bench, was positioning his haul truck to dump a load of material near the edge of a highwall, and rolled backwards over the 90 foot highwall.
Best Practices
- Utilize ground control methods, such as berms and dumping short to maintain distance from a drop off.
- Maintain equipment braking and steering systems in good repair and adjustment.
- Maintain control of self-propelled mobile equipment while it is in motion.
- Establish and discuss safe work procedures before beginning work. Routinely monitor work habits and examine work areas to ensure that safe work procedures are followed.
- Identify and control all hazards associated with the work to be performed.
- Ensure that the mining practice creates grades at the top of highwalls that slope down away from the edge.
- Follow the manufacturer’s recommended brake performance test procedures especially after brake maintenance is performed. Where no manufacturer test procedures are available, develop mine-specific brake performance test procedures.
- Train all truck drivers to maintain the truck perpendicular to the edge when backing up at a dump site. Slope the dump area so that trucks must back up a slight grade.
- Get out of your equipment and inspect the work area before performing your job.
Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf), Overview (pdf).
On March 8, 2016, a 54-year old miner with 5 years of mining experience was killed at a surface sand and gravel operation. The miner backed his haul truck over a dump site and the driver was found at the bottom of the embankment, 60 feet below. The victim was found unresponsive and partially submerged in water. CPR was attempted, but the victim was not able to be resuscitated.
On Monday, January 4, 2016, a 53 year-old belt foreman/fireboss with 34 years of mining experience was fatally injured when he came in contact with a moving underground belt conveyor. The victim was preparing to change out a hold up roller when he was caught by the moving belt and pulled into the roller.
On December 28, 2015, a 42-year old miner with 3 years of experience was killed at a surface gold mine. The operator of a loaded haul truck was attempting to have his truck climb a snow covered access road when his truck slid backwards striking the cab of the victim’s loaded haul truck, which was also recovering from sliding backwards down the same access road. Several minutes later, a third loaded haul truck also slid down backwards while attempting to climb the access road, colliding with the other wrecked haul trucks.
