The employee was drilling a test hole in the surface pit floor to see if the rider coal seam was under the seam they were taking. Due to the freezing and thawing of the highwall a large chunk of rock approximately 4'x2'x3' came down striking the enclosed cab of the mobile drill, ripping the cab off and striking the employee.
Lexington Coal Holdings, Inc controller
MSHA controller ID: 0137221
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Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2017
1,681
citations
435
significant & substantial
$998,377
proposed penalties
$292,845
paid to date
29% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $705,532 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2017
1,195
inspections on record
29,668
inspection hours
5.7
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.1,681 citations across 29,668 inspection hours.
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.$998K
proposed penalties
$893K
current assessed
$293K
paid to date
$600K
outstanding
1,531 assessments are final orders; 48 contested dockets.
As of the most recent assessment on 2026-05-19.
Source: MSHA assessed-violations and conference/litigation data, updated weekly.
Top causes
- FALL OF FACE/RIB/PILLAR/SIDE/HIGHWALL 1 fatality
- HANDLING OF MATERIALS 18 non-fatal
- SLIP OR FALL OF PERSON 12 non-fatal
- POWERED HAULAGE 10 non-fatal
- HANDTOOLS (NONPOWERED) 6 non-fatal
- FIRE 2 non-fatal
Incident timeline
2025
2 (1f)
2024
1
2023
5
2022
11
2021
4
2020
4
2019
16
2018
9
2017
1
1997
3
1996
1
Operators under this controller
Mines on record
- Twilight Mtr Surface Mine WV
- Mine No 6 WV
- Red Cedar Surface Mine WV
- BLACK BEAR PREPARATION PLANT WV
- West Cazy Surface Mine WV
- Long Fork KY
- Superior Surface Mine WV
- Lower Big Branch Impoundment WV
- White Flame Surface Mine WV
- Pontiki Plant KY
- White Oak KY
- Fork Creek Prep Plant WV
- Alloy Surface Mine WV
- ROCKSPRING PLANT WV
- Feats Loadout WV
- North Surface Mine WV
- Mine No 1 WV
Fatalities under this controller
1 recorded
Lexington Coal Company, LLC · Struck by falling object
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A dated report covering the 26-year penalty trail, line-item violation pattern, contest and docket posture, rate-normalized peer benchmark, and full fatality history. Delivered as a PDF with the underlying data as CSV.