Warehouseman

Miner was using a man lift basket to observe feed to cone crusher at a height of 28 feet. The miner was wearing fall protection harness and a retractable lanyard but was not secured/tied off to the man lift basket. The miner was ejected from the man lift basket to the surface below.

Richard E. Ramirez, a 35-year old plant operator with eight years of experience, died on May 18, 2019, at 4:25 p.m., after falling 28 feet from the basket of a personnel lift. Ramirez was using the personnel lift to access a cone crusher feed box to clear a stoppage. He was wearing a fall protection harness with a retractable lanyard, but the lanyard was not attached to the basket’s tie off points. The accident occurred because management did not ensure that the victim properly used fall protection where there was a danger of falling.

1. The mine operator did not ensure that miners properly wore fall protection where there was a danger of falling.

   Corrective action: The mine operator retrained plant operators and plant maintenance personnel on the requirement of wearing fall protection and their “working at heights policy” to include the requirement to tie off while using a personnel lift.

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

Activity at time of incident

Surface Equipment, Nec

Subunit / location

STRIP, QUARY, OPEN PIT

Accident type

Fall from machine

Source of injury

GROUND

Nature of injury

MULTIPLE INJURIES

Body part affected

HEAD,NEC

Total mining experience

8 years

Experience at this mine

3 years

Experience in this job

0 years

Degree of injury

FATALITY