Continuous Miner Operator

Miner Operator was tramming into cut. When he positioned the miner onto sights, the mining machine was on a knuckle on the bottom causing it to swing in his direction, pinning him against the rib with the tail of the mining machine.

On January 28, 2015, at approximately 6:45 p.m. Rick Kline (victim), a 43-year-old continuous mining machine operator, was fatally injured when he was pinned between the conveyor boom of the remote controlled continuous mining machine and the coal rib in the No. 5 entry on the MMU 001-0, (Lebeau Mains Section). Kline was pinned when he positioned himself between the conveyor boom and the coal rib while tramming the continuous mining machine before beginning to mine coal at the face of the No. 5 entry. The accident occurred because the victim trammed the continuous mining machine while in a position where he could be contacted by the machine. The mine operator’s administrative controls, policies, and training in place at the time of the accident were not adequate to ensure that the safety precautions in the approved roof control plan were being followed. Also, the mine operator does not have engineering controls in place to prevent this type of accident.

1. The provisions of the approved roof control plan to prevent the hazards associated with the movement of mining equipmentwere not followed.

   Corrective action: The mine operator has implemented the following written procedures:

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

Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

Source of injury

UNDERGRD MINING MACHINES

Nature of injury

CRUSHING

Body part affected

CHEST (RIBS/BREAST BONE/CHEST ORGNS)

Total mining experience

10 years

Experience at this mine

0 years

Experience in this job

8 years

Degree of injury

FATALITY