Maintenance Man

Employee placed self on the bumper of the miner below the unsupported conveyor tail boom with the machine still energized. EE apparently was trying to trouble shoot issues with the stab jack by utilizing the remote control functions and in the process inadvertently lowered the tail onto self resulting in fatal crushing injuries.

On December 4, 2021, at approximately 1:10 a.m., Lester Daugherty, Jr., a 48 year-old mechanic, with 16 years of mining experience, died when he was crushed between the conveyor tail boom and the rear bumper of the continuous mining machine. The accident occurred because the mine operator did not assure that the equipment was blocked against motion before performing maintenance on machinery.

1. The mine operator did not assure that the equipment was blocked against motion before performing maintenance on machinery.

   Corrective action: The mine operator developed a new written procedure for performing work under the continuous mining machine tail boom. The procedure requires the power to be off except where machinery motion is necessary to make adjustments, or for troubleshooting. In cases where machinery motion is necessary, cribbing will be used as a buffer to prevent a miner from being struck by the continuous mining machine’s tail boom. The continuous mining machine’s tail boom must be blocked against motion by using cribbing that is installed on a level/stable ground and will consist of: “one-hole pin boards,” with three (3) boards per layer; or “solid wooden crib blocks,” with two (2) blocks per layer. All miners have been trained on this new procedure.

Read the full report (PDF)

Findings from MSHA's final investigation report, which supersedes the preliminary narrative above.

Activity at time of incident

Machine Maintenance

Subunit / location

UNDERGROUND

Underground location

LAST OPEN CROSSCUT

Mining method

Continuous Mining

Accident type

Caught in, under or between running or meshing objects

Source of injury

UNDERGRD MINING MACHINES

Nature of injury

CRUSHING

Body part affected

MULTIPLE PARTS (MORE THAN ONE MAJOR)

Total mining experience

16 years

Experience at this mine

3 years

Experience in this job

12 years

Degree of injury

FATALITY