Mining Incidents
Fatality · MSHA Record #220211260010

Haul/Off Road/Coal/Ore/Pit/Quarry/Rock/Rubber Tire Truck Driver

April 19, 2021 at 11:45 AM
MOBILE CRUSHER #3 FRONTERA MATERIALS · Surface · Metal/Non-Metal
Hidalgo County, TX
Classification POWERED HAULAGE
Type Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object
Investigator narrative
Miner left haul truck running without setting the parking brake and/or chocking the wheels. The haul truck rolled forward and pinned the miner between the haul truck and miner's personal vehicle. Miner did not survive miner's injury.
Final MSHA investigation
On April 19, 2021, David Garcia Jr., a 28 year-old haul truck operator with approximately ten months of experience, died when his haul truck, parked on a grade, rolled, pinning him against his personal pickup truck. The fatality occurred because the mine operator: 1) did not assure that miners followed proper parking procedures for unattended mobile equipment, including applying the parking brake or using chocks when parked on a grade, and did not provide chocks to mobile equipment operators for use when parking on a grade; and 2) did not provide task training to Garcia Jr. to operate the John Deere 250D.
Root causes
  1. The mine operator did not assure that miners followed proper parking procedures for unattended mobile equipment, including applying the parking brake or using chocks when parked on a grade, and did not provide chocks to mobile equipment operators for use when parking on a grade.

    Corrective action: The mine operator provided a set of chocks for every piece of mobile equipment and trained all miners on proper parking procedures for unattended mobile equipment. Additionally, the mine operator created designated parking areas for personal vehicles separate from mine mobile equipment.

  2. The mine operator did not provide task training to Garcia Jr. to operate the John Deere 250D.

    Corrective action: The mine operator conducted task training for mobile equipment with all of their miners.

Read the full report (PDF)

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

Record details
Activity at time of incident
Idle
Subunit / location
STRIP, QUARY, OPEN PIT
Accident type
Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object
Source of injury
HGHWY ORE CARIER,LRGE TRK
Nature of injury
CRUSHING
Body part affected
CHEST (RIBS/BREAST BONE/CHEST ORGNS)
Total mining experience
0 years
Experience at this mine
0 years
Experience in this job
0 years
Degree of injury
FATALITY
Verify on MSHA

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:

Source: US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) · Document 220211260010 · Mine ID 4104292 Trainer view →