EE and another employee were pulling the engine and removing nose cone on the radiator. EE was on the bottom under the 992g wheel loader. The other employee was on top of the machine. EE was taking the radiator nose off, accidentally took bolts out of counter weights and it fell on EE. Resulting in a fatality.
Mining Incidents in Kentucky
Kentucky has 454 recorded mining fatalities on file with MSHA, across 85,878 reportable incidents (1983–2026).
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- Fatalities recorded
- 454
- Total incidents
- 85,878
- Fatal rate
- 1%
Year-over-year fatalities
- 1983 15
- 1984 39
- 1985 18
- 1986 20
- 1987 30
- 1988 15
- 1989 32
- 1990 25
- 1991 18
- 1992 10
- 1993 20
- 1994 13
- 1995 12
- 1996 13
- 1997 7
- 1998 13
- 1999 10
- 2000 13
- 2001 6
- 2002 10
- 2003 11
- 2004 6
- 2005 11
- 2006 17
- 2007 2
- 2008 9
- 2009 8
- 2010 7
- 2011 8
- 2012 5
- 2013 6
- 2014 2
- 2015 2
- 2016 3
- 2017 2
- 2018 1
- 2019 5
- 2020 3
- 2021 1
- 2022 2
- 2023 3
- 2026 1
Top mines in Kentucky by fatality count
- 01 Pyro #9 Slope William Station 14fatal 634 total
- 02 Dotiki Mine 6fatal 1,937 total
- 03 Ovenfork Mine 5fatal 502 total
- 04 CARDINAL 5fatal 1,364 total
- 05 Black Thunder Mine No. 1 5fatal 407 total
Top operators by fatality count
- 01 Pyro Mining Company 14fatal
- 02 Lone Mountain Processing LLC 7fatal
- 03 Manalapan Mining Co., Inc. 7fatal
- 04 Warrior Coal LLC 7fatal
- 05 South-East Coal Company Inc 6fatal
- 06 Andalex Resources Inc 5fatal
- 07 Blue Diamond Coal Company 5fatal
- 08 Costain Coal Inc 5fatal
- 09 Kentucky Darby Llc 5fatal
- 10 Nally & Hamilton Enterprises Inc 5fatal
Recent fatalities
Employee evacuated truck on mine ramp and hit head on ramp floor causing serious head injury. *EE died on 3/19/2024.
While assisting in the offloading of a tank from the RGN trailer, the equipment being used to crane the tank struck JD's Custom Transport employee, causing EE's death.
OUR EMPLOYEE WORKING AT MOUNTAIN AGGREGATES QUARRY MINE SITE WAS FATALLY INJURED WHILE OPERATING A DOZER ON AN ACCESS RD IN WHICH THE EQUIPMENT LEFT THE ACCESS RD AND ROLLED DOWN AN EMBANKMENT.
The employee and co-workers were in the No.8 entry at x-cut No.47 on the 3 South Mains preparing to remove a permanent stopping. The injured employee was in the process of walking outby to turn off a water valve, when the roof collapsed resulting in a fatality. MSHA was notified. The injured employee was pronounced dead by the coroner on at 10:48pm on 3/21/2022.
Employee was driving on work site when a tree fell off the High Wall into the cab of employee's pickup.
Employee placed self on the bumper of the miner below the unsupported conveyor tail boom with the machine still energized. EE apparently was trying to trouble shoot issues with the stab jack by utilizing the remote control functions and in the process inadvertently lowered the tail onto self resulting in fatal crushing injuries.
Changing the rear tire on a 992D Loader. Jack kicked out and and loader fell down crushing employee.
The victim was fatally injured when struck by a battery powered scoop which had trammed through a line curtain in the #6 Entry of the #5 Unit (MMU 009-0) outby the working place where the continuous mining machine was being operated.
Employee was on Hydro seeder and changed barrels on the gun and pointed the gun at self and engaged the clutch. The pressure knocked employee back against the rails on the truck. CPR was provided but had no effect.
While employee was working on the ride a piece of rock rolled off coal rib, striking them in the back. Pinning them against the personal ride.
The victim was fatally injured when EE was struck by a battery powered scoop which had trammed through a translucent line curtain in the #3 Entry of the #6 Unit (MMU 005) just outby the working place where the continuous mining machine was being operated. Co-workers observed the victim in a sitting position stretching EE's legs prior to the accident.
FMC employees were attempting to seal the hoist shaft at the Bremen Portal at Ken American Paradise Mine No. 9. Steel beams were welded in place metal decking was secured covering the shaft. Methane accumulated in the shaft and caused a series of two explosions 4-5 seconds apart. The second explosion killed FMC employee. No other fatalities or injuries occurred.
Rib Rolled onto miner operator.
While the surveyor was setting up the instrument in #4 belt entry, the other surveyor was getting height measurements down #3 entry. A shuttle car loaded with coal coming from #2 entry tramming to the feeder struck and killed the surveyor near spad 24.
The belt Foreman & 1 other employee made a belt splice on #7 mainline belt. Belt came on & foreman was dragged approx. 6-7 crosscuts before the belt stopped by a person making belt checks.
While changing work cutter head bits on the coal auger machine, ee was struck by a rock approx 4 feet by 5 feet by 30 inches that fell from the bottom section of the highwall. EE was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Death
Employee was changing a cable pulley that raised and lowered a load spout. While installing the new pulley, something broke. The cable struck the employee in the head area fatally injuring the employee. The investigation is still ongoing to determine the exact cause.
While workers were cleaning up material that was removed from a new coal transfer borehole using a continuous miner, a section of rib/brow fell from the inby portion of the entry and continued outby pulling rib bolts. The material rolled down the rib and struck the miner operator causing fatal crushing injuries to chest and abdomen.