Continuous Miner Operator
The employee received a fatal injury after being struck by falling rock.
On September 6, 2024, at approximately 5:55 p.m., Gary Chapman, a 33 year-old continuous mining machine (CMM) operator with over 12 years of mining experience, died when he was struck by falling rock from the mine roof. The accident occurred because the mine operator did not: 1) comply with the approved Roof Control Plan (RCP), 2) conduct adequate examinations of the I-5 working section, and 3) have procedures in place to prevent miners from working or traveling under unsupported roof.
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The mine operator did not comply with the approved RCP.
Corrective action: The mine operator developed, implemented and trained miners on a revision of the RCP addressing mining stumps for connecting crosscuts and measures taken for adverse roof conditions.
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The mine operator did not conduct adequate examinations of the I-5 working section.
Corrective action: The mine operator has conducted an adequate examination of the I-5 working section and has trained examiners on conducting adequate examinations.
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The mine operator did not have procedures in place to prevent miners from working or traveling under unsupported roof.
Corrective action: The mine operator revised the RCP and training plan to provide quarterly training to miners on hazards of work or travel under unsupported roof. The mine operator trained all miners on this revision. The revised RCP and training emphasized that miners must never work or travel under unsupported roof.
Findings from MSHA's final investigation report, which supersedes the preliminary narrative above.
- Activity at time of incident
- Continuous Miner
- Subunit / location
- UNDERGROUND
- Underground location
- FACE
- Mining method
- Continuous Mining
- Accident type
- Struck by falling object
- Source of injury
- CAVING ROCK,COAL,ORE,WSTE
- Nature of injury
- CRUSHING
- Body part affected
- MULTIPLE PARTS (MORE THAN ONE MAJOR)
- Total mining experience
- 12 years
- Experience at this mine
- 0 years
- Experience in this job
- 1 year
- Degree of injury
- FATALITY
Every record on this page mirrors what MSHA publishes under its Open Government Data program, refreshed weekly. MSHA does not publish per-accident URLs (the Accidents data is distributed as a single bulk file), so this is how to retrieve the source for the specific record below:
- Final investigation report: Read MSHA's final report
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Accident record:
Download MSHA Accidents.zip
then search for Document number
220242640013(the unique key per MSHA Form 7000-1) -
Mine record:
MSHA Mine Data Retrieval System
and search by Mine ID
4609029 - All MSHA datasets: Open Government Data program directory covering Accident, Mines, Inspections, Violations, etc.