MSHA issues two new reports on miner deaths
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has issued this week two reports on deaths of miners at operations run by CONSOL Energy Inc.
In this report, MSHA found that Mark McIntyre had not been properly trained to work safely at CONSOL’s Ireland River Loading Facility (above) in Marshall County, W.Va. MSHA cited the company for not providing training … Apparently, workers at the loadout were trained as if they only worked at the preparation plant. CONSOL has started new training specific to safety on the river loadout, MSHA said.
And in this report, MSHA found that Robert Maust died in a roof fall at CONSOL’s Bailey Mine in Greene County, Pa., because the company “did not have proper procedures in place to permanently support corners while operating inby the area.” Maust died when a portion of the mine roof fell while he was installing a roof jack on the left inby corner ofa crosscut. MSHA did not cite CONSOL in this death, despite finding that the lack of proper procedures contributed to the fatality.
4 comments
MSHA didnt fine CONSOL for Bob’s death because MSHA dosent have set procedures for this practice. This mine isnt a little southern WV punch hole. Your talking about a mine that produces 11 million tons per year. MSHA even has a full time inspector that only inspects the Bailey mine. When your setting new new standerds like mines of this size do, freak accidents like this happen. I can tell you that corner cuts like this are no longer allowed in CONSOL. Also I kinda take offense to The line that Mr McIntyre hadnt been trained to work safely. From experience I can tell you that this is the safest company I have ever worked for. The mine act requires 8 hours of safety retraining per 12 months. I have been to 64 hours of safety training in the past 10 and have another 10 hours next month. I dont think any of this matters to the enviromentalist that read and post to this blog but it might to a hard working coal miner who happens to read it.
The report, sir, does not say that Mr. McIntyre ‘hadn’t been trained to work safely.’ It said that he hadn’t been trained for site specific hazards. While he had been in the coal industry for 37 years and was a strong advocate for practicing safety procedures, I do not believe that my husband had ever worked on a barge..particularly at night. Have you ever worked on a barge at night, alone, with no radio and a questionable cap light? He, too, attended all the required safety classes. There were just none that addressed barge work issues.
Mrs. McIntyre,
First, my more sincere sympathies to you and your family for your terrible loss.
I’m sure all Coal Tattoo readers have your family in our thoughts and prayers.
With much due respect, I believe my blog post (as well as the story we published in Saturday’s Gazette, available here: http://wvgazette.com/News/200910300853).
As the MSHA report noted, your husband had much experience in mining, but only about a year at this operation (the prep plant where he was a foreman) and, according to MSHA, absolutely no experience at the barge facility.
The MSHA citation issued to CONSOL stated, and I quote here:
“It was determined the employees of the Ireland Loadout facility were systematically treated as employees of the McElroy Preparation Plant (ID 46-01437) for the purposes of training even though their work and the hazards associated with each site are different and distinct. The training was not specific to the hazards normally encountered by the loadout employees.”
And the lead of my post said:
“MSHA found that Mark McIntyre had not been properly trained to work safely at CONSOL’s Ireland River Loading Facility (above) in Marshall County, W.Va.”
That is a completely accurate and reasonable summary of what the MSHA citation said.
I regret that if, in writing it that way, you thought I was being critical of your husband. I was not, and did not intend my post to be read that way.
Rather, I was simply trying to reflect what MSHA said: That CONSOL made sure your husband had the proper training for working at the prep plant, but did not train him for work at the loadout. One thing I should have made more clear was that CONSOL sent your husband to do this work at the barge facility when he had not done that job before, and without training him for that job.
Again, I am very sorry for your loss, and I thank you for taking the time to read Coal Tattoo and comment on it.
Ken Ward Jr.
Scott 14,
I’m very familiar with the Bailey Mine, and I’m aware it isn’t a small unsophisticated operation.
Still, the conclusion from MSHA was very, very clear:
Robert Maust died because the operator “did not have procedures in place to permanently support corners prior to operating inby the area.”
I’ve read hundreds of reports on coal miners’ deaths over the years, and most recently re-read several times every report for a 10-year period from 1996 and 2005.
One thing I learned there is that if MSHA wants to cite an operator in a miner’s death, they can and do … for example, in this instance, the inspector could have cited CONSOL for a violation of 30 CFR 75.202 ( http://www.msha.gov/30cfr/75.202.htm ) which requires operators to ensure that:
“The roof, face and ribs of areas where persons work or travel shall be supported or otherwise controlled to protect persons from hazards related to falls of the roof, face or ribs and coal or rock bursts.”
In regards to roof falls, this regulation is akin to a “general duty” clause. If there’s a roof fall, under the strict liability Congress built into the Mine Act, there is a violation of that standard. If the roof falls, it stands to reason it hasn’t been supported enough to keep it from falling. The thing speaks for itself.
My experience reading MSHA reports tells me that sometimes MSHA invokes that standard, and sometimes they don’t.
As for you being “offended at the line” that Mr. McIntyre, well … it seems to me that the offense, as cited by MSHA and explained in its report, is that Mr. McIntyre had no experience at all at this barge facility — and yet CONSOL sent him there after dark to work, without providing him with the specific training needed to work there safely.
I’ve written before about what CONSOL’s CEO, Brett Harvey, has had to say about mine safety … For example, in one fairly recent speech, he said:
“We need to change the paradigm and we need to change it now. What industry must change is our incremental approach to safety improvement because it creates an unintended tolerance to accidents. We need to get to zero.”
That’s in this story,
http://wvgazette.com/News/BeyondSago/200801020677
I’m not sure how writing off as a “freak accident” do the death of a coal miner in an incident that could have been prevented had proper procedures been in place gets to zero or meets CONSOL’s stated corporate goals.
Rather, being plain and up front about what caused deaths like this is what can help the mining industry really do what everyone says they want to do: Send EVERY worker home safe to their family EVERY shift.
Ken.
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