This just in from Jama Jarrett, spokeswoman for the West Virginia Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training:
There’s been another coal-mining death in West Virginia, this one at Carson One Mining LLC’s Adrian Preparation Plant in Upshur County. The name of the worker killed has not yet been released, and there are few other details available yet.
Jama told me a few minutes ago that this is the information available at this point:
They were moving some equipment, and the worker got hit with a chain.
I’ll report more when it becomes available …
Updated: Here is some additional information from MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere:
The mine had been temporarily idled. The equipment was owned by an individual who was not the mine owner. He apparently sold some of it to another company. That company was at the mine site today to get the equipment. They were trying to pull an excavator from the edge of a pond and had hooked a chain to the excavator and to a dozer to pull the excavator. The first attempt failed, so they rehooked the chain to the middle section of the excavator. When they pulled, the hook broke from the blade of the dozer and flew off, striking an individual in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The accident occurred somewhere around 11:30 a.m this. morning. No work had been going on at the site, and the owner of the mine was not present when the accident occurred.
Officials will need to investigate further to determine if this death meets the requirements to be counted as a coal-mining death.
Update:
The worker killed was 74-year-old David Lincolnogger, an employee of Hurricane Equipment, located in Cullden, W.Va.
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Enough is enough..this is not the 1920′s anymore. We are capable of stopping these and other types of fatals that we have seen occurring here of late. This is unacceptable and must be stopped now.
The sun will come up tomarrow and life will go on, and death.
Sad to hear and my prayers with the family.
O’Dell, Lets be real though. A guy getting hit by a chain may have been preventable but so is me hitting someone on the way home from work. It happens. Now if the mine owners were warned that the chain was old, or frail, or could break at any moment and didn’t take steps to fix it then that is another story.
Facts are mining is a hazardous job that has serious risks. If someone doesn’t do anything to help mimize those risks when they are repeatly told to do so then that is one thing but accidents will happen. They do everyday.
So was it preventable, sure but only in the same way that every accident in the world could be prevented in some manor or another.
If OSHA had been anywhere around, that chain would never have been in use, The buyer who was trying to move the equipment did no have the proper tools for the job, I’m so sorry for the mans death as I live here in Upshur county. Think the man was just working where he could make ends meet — never tinking about not coming home. So sad, Upshur county has had enough.
Ken, I hope the govener reads your blog, if not someone needs to post it in print on his door.
Still living in fear that at anytime Wolf Run Minning (ICG ) could make some mistake under me, and my business might be distroyed. Hard pill to swallow
Very few accidents are unavoidable. Yes, a semi can fail to heed a traffic signal and hit a car broadside if the car driver is putting too much faith in the traffic signal and not looking at the traffic flow. Both drivers could have avoided the accident by having a safer attitude. There are more one-armed farmers around here than I can count because they didn’t take the time to make sure that the PTO was turned off before trying to clear the jam in the corn picker. When equipment is well-maintained and people are allowed to have a safety-first attitude more accidents can be avoided.
But safety takes time and time is money and people take shortcuts and “accidents” happen.
[...] the record, the headline — More bad news: Another mining death in W.Va. — was based on the initial reports from the state Office of Miners Health, Safety and [...]
excuse me people, i am 1 of the granddaughters of this man. let me tell ya something, it was a freak accident. He has worked around heavy equipment his whole life, my dad even included. He has dealt with coal mine operators and people from around the world. You think he wasnt allowed there? are you serious, he wouldnt go where he wasnt allowed. you all need to check facts before posting bs on here. I am fortunate to have had him as my grandpa and it has hit me very hard along w my family. dont badmouth people u dont know or situations u dont have the facts about. families do read ya know.
granddaughter,
Thanks for reading and taking the time to post your comment.
My most sincere condolences to your family. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and yours.
Take a look at this updated post:
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/05/05/will-latest-death-be-counted-as-mining-related/
You’ll see that MSHA is now saying it has evidence that he was indeed allowed on the site by a mine employee (as I suspected was probably the case).
I for one certainly didn’t intend to bad-mouth your grandfather, I regret if my post was read that way. Again, my prayers go out to your family.
Ken Ward Jr.