Mining Incidents

Lester L Lee: 139 MSHA citations controller

MSHA controller ID: M05120

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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
15
Mines on record
2
Years on record
1992–2005
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2000
139
citations
40
significant & substantial
$30,541
proposed penalties
$19,814
paid to date
65% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $10,727 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2000
64
inspections on record
687
inspection hours
n/a
citations per 100 inspection hours
This rate is recorded citations divided by MSHA inspection hours, per 100 hours. It reflects inspection effort, not mine size or production.
Rate withheld: 687 inspection hours is too few for a stable rate. A minimum of 1,000 inspection hours is required.
Source: MSHA inspections data, updated weekly.
Penalty disposition
Differences between proposed and paid penalties reflect both settlements and conference reductions and amounts still owed. Outstanding is the balance currently owed.
$31K
proposed penalties
$20K
current assessed
$20K
paid to date
$0
outstanding
136 assessments are final orders; 7 contested dockets.
Of $17K in penalties contested before the Commission, $6K was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2015-11-04.
Source: MSHA assessed-violations and conference/litigation data, updated weekly.
Violation severity profile
Shares are computed over citations that carry the MSHA gravity and negligence coding; a small share of records are uncoded.
29.4%
significant & substantial
8.8%
high negligence or reckless
28.7%
reasonably likely or greater
37.5%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.0% none, 15.4% low, 75.7% moderate, 8.8% high, 0.0% reckless.
Source: MSHA violations gravity and negligence coding, updated weekly.
Health sampling
A sample is a point in time compliance measurement, not an individual exposure history. These figures describe MSHA sampling records and do not establish causation or personal dose.

Metal and nonmetal contaminants (personal samples)
Many samples are screening measurements of substances with no applicable exposure limit; they are counted as samples but excluded from every over-limit figure. Over-limit shares use only limit-tested samples.

Last sampled: 2002-06-12, 24 years ago
0%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
2
samples
1
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz1
  • Unlisted Particulate, total, <1% Qtz1
Source: MSHA respirable dust, quartz, and noise sampling records, updated weekly. Metal/nonmetal contaminant figures come from MSHA's Personal Health Samples and Area Samples files (public record), updated weekly.
When citations were contested
Contesting a citation before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission is a lawful right. These figures state the public outcomes of that process, from MSHA's Contested Violations file.
24 citations taken to the federal commission · 17% of citations on record
  • Settled 24 · 100%
56%
S&S designation survived the contest
Counts a Significant & Substantial citation as surviving when a settlement or judge's decision kept the designation, or the contest was dismissed or defaulted so the citation stands as issued. Vacated and withdrawn citations, and settlements that removed the designation, count against.
of 9 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
74%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$12K proposed, $3K after decisions · industry: 39%
Source: MSHA Contested Violations file (public record), updated weekly. A dismissed or defaulted contest leaves the citation standing as issued; a vacated or withdrawn citation is removed from the violation record. Latest contest filed 2013-02-01. Vacated and withdrawn citations are removed from the file this view attributes through, so that outcome is slightly undercounted here.
Contested penalties
A reduction or dismissal at the Commission is a lawful outcome of contesting a proposed penalty. Figures are the proposed amount and the amount upheld in the docket's decision.
Largest penalties this controller contested before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, with the outcome on record.
Docket Decision Judge Year Proposed / upheld
LAKE 2012-269M Settlement Lesnick 2012 $8K → $1K
LAKE 2004-30-M Settlement Hodgdon 2004 $5K → $3K
LAKE 2013-299M Settlement Miller 2013 $2K → $162
LAKE 2013-83M Settlement Miller 2013 $1K → $1K
LAKE 2012-576M Settlement Lesnick 2013 $443 → $300
LAKE 2013-300M Settlement Harner 2013 $100 → $100
Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), updated weekly.

Top causes

Incident timeline

2005
1
2004
1
2000
1
1997
2
1996
3
1995
2
1994
1
1993
2
1992
2

Operators under this controller

Mines on record

For insurers, brokers, and safety consultants

Where Lester L Lee stands on silica, penalties, and injury rate

MSHA's standard limits respirable silica to 50 micrograms per cubic metre, but MSHA publishes dust and quartz as separate files and never the silica figure itself. We derive it per sample, score it against the limit, and set the operator's injury rate against a benchmark built from the full MSHA operator record. With the 26-year penalty trail, contest posture, and fatality history. Delivered as a PDF with the underlying data as CSV.

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