Barge/Boat/Dredge/Towbarge/Towboat/Leach Operator

September 9, 2022 at 11:00 AM

Barry Industrial Sand, Inc. · Surface · Metal/Non-Metal

Operator: Barry Industrial Sand, Inc (Ivan D Barry)

Orange County, TX

Classification OTHER

Type Drowning

Investigator narrative

Dredge operator was missing and eventually found at bottom of lake.

Final MSHA investigation

On September 9, 2022, at approximately 11:00 a.m., Elisha McMahon, a 62 year-old lead man with approximately 30 years of mining experience, drowned when he fell from the rear walkway of the dredge he was operating into the water. The accident occurred because the mine operator did not ensure that the miner wore a life jacket where there was danger of falling into water.

Root causes

The mine operator did not ensure that the miner wore a life jacket where there was danger of falling into water.

Corrective action: The mine operator halted mining operations and submitted a notice of closure of mining operations in writing to MSHA.

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: Barge, Boat, Dredge
Subunit / location: DREDGE
Accident type: Drowning
Source of injury: WATER
Nature of injury: SUFFOC,SMOK INHILAT,DROWN
Body part affected: BODY SYSTEMS
Total mining experience: 30 years
Experience at this mine: 30 years
Experience in this job: 22 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:

Final investigation report: Read MSHA's final report
Accident record: Download MSHA Accidents.zip then search for Document number 220222690023 (the unique key per MSHA Form 7000-1)
Mine record: MSHA Mine Data Retrieval System and search by Mine ID 4102392
All MSHA datasets: Open Government Data program directory covering Accident, Mines, Inspections, Violations, etc.

Source: US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) · Document 220222690023 · Mine ID 4102392 Trainer view →