Electrician Helper

The investigation into the accident is on-going, but as of now, it appears as the three employees were installing ground vault indicator lights when an ach flash occurred, injuring them. The employees were transported to the hospital.

1. Contractor management procedures failed to ensure that the electrical circuit breaker was de-energized prior to performing work on it.

   Corrective action: Mine management conducted training classes for all employees at the mine regarding lock-out and tag-out policies and procedures. All electrical contractors will be trained in the future regarding proper lock-out and tag-out and "bottom feed" circuit breakers. The main electrical circuit breaker was replaced with a "top feed" circuit breaker. Management verified that Snyder did not have any additional "bottom feed" circuit breakers at Snyder.

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

Activity at time of incident

Electrical Maintenance

Subunit / location

STRIP, QUARY, OPEN PIT

Accident type

Flash burns (electric)

Source of injury

ELECTRICAL APPARATUS,(Not Elsewhere Classified)

Nature of injury

ELECT.ARC BURN-NOT CONTAC

Body part affected

MULTIPLE PARTS (MORE THAN ONE MAJOR)

Total mining experience

17 years

Experience at this mine

0 years

Experience in this job

1 year

Degree of injury

FATALITY