Mine Manager fatality at Birch River Energy Plant No 1 (Birch River Energy, LLC), WV, March 2, 2004

at 4:00 PM

On March 2, 2004, a mine manager was fatally injured in a falling/sliding/rolling materials accident at Birch River Energy Plant No 1 (Birch River Energy, LLC), WV.

Birch River Energy Plant No 1 · Facility · Coal

Operator: Birch River Energy, LLC (Alpha Natural Resources, Inc.)

Webster County, WV

Classification FALLING/SLIDING/ROLLING MATERIALS

Type Caught in, under or between collapsing material or buildings

Investigator narrative

PRELIMINARY INDICATIONS ARE THAT A PORTION OF THE STOCKPILE SLID, COVERING AN EMPLOYEE WHILE HE WAS DIRECTING A LOADER OPERATING DURING ACTIVITIES RELATED TO THE MAINTENANCE ON AN UNDERGROUND RECLAIM FEEDER. THE EE WAS COVERED FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME AND WAS PRONOUNCED DECEASED AT THE HOSPITAL.

Record details

Activity at time of incident: Supervise
Subunit / location: MILL OPERATION/PREPARATION PLANT
Accident type: Caught in, under or between collapsing material or buildings
Source of injury: BROKEN ROCK,COAL,ORE,WSTE
Nature of injury: SUFFOC,SMOK INHILAT,DROWN
Body part affected: BODY SYSTEMS
Total mining experience: 31 years
Experience at this mine: 6 years
Experience in this job: 3 years
Degree of injury: FATALITY

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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:

Accident record: Download MSHA Accidents.zip then search for Document number 220040720042 (the unique key per MSHA Form 7000-1)
Mine record: MSHA Mine Data Retrieval System and search by Mine ID 4606045
All MSHA datasets: Open Government Data program directory covering Accident, Mines, Inspections, Violations, etc.

Source: US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) · Document 220040720042 · Mine ID 4606045 Trainer view →