All MSHA-reportable accidents at U.S. Silver-Idaho, Inc. operations in 2013. Fatalities appear first.
While the hoist man was performing his preoperational checks the hoist tripped, which sets the brakes on the hoist drum. This was determined to be the result of a power bump from our power source which is provided by Avista Utilities. The system functioned as designed when there is a power fluctuation. The hoist functioned normally when we located an electrician to reset it.
The hoist-man was preparing to start skipping muck by balancing the skips according to the level they were pulling from. During this process the hoist kicked out due to failure of the main field breaker. It tripped and would not reset the hoist. There were no personnel on either conveyance at the time. The breaker was replaced and the hoist was re-commissioned.
An employee was working on removing a blockage in a muck chute by blasting. After several days with no progress he decided to create an opening to allow muck to bypass the blockage. This allowed material to accumulate at the bottom of the raise. He did not remove this material before deciding to wash additional material out of the chute which eventually obstructed the access.
A rockburst occurred in F entry of 4600 ramp which bagged the wire mesh & sheared a split set bolt. This allowed a small amount of material to be released(apprx. 2 1/2 yds). There was a 6x8 section of the crown about 50' from the face that was heavily damaged and this is where the material was released. The wire mesh contained about 90% of the material
An electric pump that supplies the gravity oil tank burned a fuse which tripped the safeties and shut down the hoist. Because of a faulty fuse panel the back-up pump did not automatically take over. The primary hoist was still operational and no one was stranded due to this occurrence.
A power surge was created because of a brief power bump that occurred from our power source (Avista Utilities). This caused fuses to burn in the hoist fuse bank and resulted in the hoist being shut down for 2 hours and ten minutes. There were 96 persons underground at the time. We still had 2 hoists that were operable.
Employee was pulling the overshot & core tube out of the rods. He had the overshot supported with his right hand extended & raised over his head. The overshot came unlatched which caused his weight to shift all to his right arm and stress his shoulder resulting in his injury.
He had just finished moving the electricians utility truck from it's covered parking area so that he could have access to move a fan out of the shop with the forklift. He parked the pickup in an uncovered area. When he stepped out of the vehicle his foot slipped on the icy surface. In an attempt to catch himself he slammed his other foot into the ground hard enough to cause injury.
Pouring cement cell in mechanized heading. A pump was not working correctly and the employee was going back and fourth through a water and cement mix over his boots which resulted in burns to both feet.
Employee was bolting and dropped his jackleg. when he went to pick the machine up he slipped and fell and cut his wrist on a rock.
Employee was using a hack saw to cut a 3"" plastic pvc pipe in an area with a whiz-bang set up for ventilation. While cutting the pipe some debris was blown in behind the safety glasses and became stuck in the right eye. The debris was washed out underground.
Miner was positioning a 6""X10' section of drisco pipe into the pipe welder clamp. Employee did not move his hand out of the way when the pipe was pushed forward by other employees causing his right middle finger to become caught between the clamp and the pipe.
Employee was bolting up a round that had been previously blasted. He was in the process of tightening a dywidag bolt when a rock directly over his head fell and contacted the front of his hard hat. This caused what was diagnosed as a neck sprain.
The employee was inspecting a tailing pipe on the surface which was located on an embankment. He was descending while holding a safety line. He stepped over the pipe with his left leg and when he lifted his right leg to step over it his left fibula fractured. He did not slip or trip and he was not in an awkward position. He also stated that he had good footing.
Employee was barring back when a small rock slipped from behind bolt plate and hit him on the left wrist causing a laceration requiring sutures.
Employee was rock bolting the back when he encountered a rock that had a crack in it but was too tight to bar down. He decided to moil it down with his drill but when it broke loose it contacted the footwall and deflected toward him. It struck him on the right calf causing a laceration which required sutures.
The employee was breaking oversized rock on a grizzly using an 8 pound double jack. He swung and struck the rock when the handle of the double jack broke on impact. He said he felt a pop in his elbow when this occurred and he also noticed pain. The doctor diagnosed this injury as a tendon strain and placed him on restricted duty.
The miner was pulling on a jackleg drill trying to get the steel out of the hole in extremely gravelly ground. The drill did not want to come out and the miner pulled on the machine to hard and strained his lower back.
Employee was attempting to remove a 6"" header from a charged airline in order to add additional 6"" pipe. He shut off the 6"" valve and began to remove the Victaulic fitting. With out paying attention he was removing the vic fitting on the pressurized side of the valve. This caused a violent release of the header and valve which were still pressurized on that side.
An employee was trying to reposition an electric motor that was hanging vertically from an overhead hoist. He placed a block under the motor and slowly lowered the hoist so the motor would tip. The motor rotated unexpectedly and moved laterally which caused his finger to become pinched between the block and a protruding housing.
Employee was breaking a rock that was stuck in the chute lip when a separate piece of material came down and caught employees finger between the rock and the chute lip. This resulted in a laceration requiring sutures.
The employee was attempting to remove a rock that was caught between a utility pipe and the rib in a drift. When He lifted the rock up another rock that apparently was resting against it fell and struck him on the back of the right hand causing a laceration which required sutures.
Accident occurred on 6/7/13 but was reported as minor. EE continued to experience symptoms and was treated on 7/17/13. EE was task training on the termite drill. This work requires repetitive twisting motion with both arms. He noticed symptoms of numbness and pain later that evening after shift. He did not feel any pain during his shift. EE was not used to this activity.
Breaking bands on bundle of split sets with pipe wrench. Band broke & forearm slid across broken band & cut forearm.
An employee was breaking rock on the grizzly when a large shard of rock flew up and struck his glasses knocking them off of his face. At the same time a tiny fragment of rock became embedded in his eye.
The employee was operating a valve which opens and closes a chute to fill cars with muck. He had just emptied the chute and a rock which must have been stuck to the side of the chute broke loose and fell, contacting the chute lip or check boards. It then bounced out of the empty chute lip and struck the employee on the right side of the abdomen causing a laceration/sutures.
The employee was drilling in the back with a 4' steel for the purpose of installing ground support. The steel broke near the chuck which caused the machine to extend unexpectedly and start to fall. The employee quickly retreated but his left arm made contact with a split bolt which was standing next to the rib. This caused a laceration which required sutures.
EE noticed that there was something irritating his eye after his shift when he got home. The next morning the problem had not resolved so we took him to the Ophthalmologist and it was determined that he had a small particle embedded in his eye which had to be scraped out. He does not know when or how this happened.
The employees audiogram showed a STS of 28.33(right) and 30.0(left)