Beltman
An employee was crushed between a mobile bridge carrier (MBC) and the coal rib.
On January 10, 2025, at 12:43 p.m., Joshua Mock, a 34-year-old mobile bridge carrier operator with one year and nine months of mining experience, was fatally injured when he was pinned between the mobile bridge carrier and the coal rib. The accident occurred because the mine operator did not: 1) properly maintain the electrical components of the continuous haulage system in safe operating condition; and 2) have procedures for ensuring the continuous haulage system operators communicated their position and intended movements.
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The mine operator did not properly maintain the electrical components in the continuous haulage system in safe operating condition.
Corrective action: The mine operator removed one of the different models of MBCs from the continuous haulage system. The mine operator rewired one MBC and reconnected the CMM and MBC with the correct cable according to the manufacturer’s MSHA approved electrical drawings. The mine operator demonstrated proper operation of the continuous haulage system.
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The mine operator did not have procedures for ensuring the continuous haulage system operators communicated their position and intended movement.
Corrective action: A safeguard was issued to address this condition. The mine operator developed and implemented a written procedure for continuous haulage system operator communication requiring:
Findings from MSHA's final investigation report, which supersedes the preliminary narrative above.
- Activity at time of incident
- Conveyor Belt
- Subunit / location
- UNDERGROUND
- Underground location
- FACE
- Mining method
- Continuous Mining
- Accident type
- Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object
- Source of injury
- BELT CONVEYORS
- Nature of injury
- CRUSHING
- Body part affected
- CHEST (RIBS/BREAST BONE/CHEST ORGNS)
- Total mining experience
- 1 year
- Experience at this mine
- 1 year
- 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
220250210032(the unique key per MSHA Form 7000-1) -
Mine record:
MSHA Mine Data Retrieval System
and search by Mine ID
3609893 - All MSHA datasets: Open Government Data program directory covering Accident, Mines, Inspections, Violations, etc.