Mining Incidents

Mining Incidents in Texas

Every reportable accident on file with MSHA at a Texas mine. Operators below are ranked by recorded fatality count in this state.

Fatalities recorded
69
Total incidents
11,866
Years on record
2000–2026

Year-over-year fatalities

  1. 20001
  2. 20051
  3. 20071
  4. 20101
  5. 20161

Top operators in Texas by fatality count

  1. 01Ash Grove Cement Company1fatal
  2. 02TXI (A/K/A Texas Industries Inc)1fatal
  3. 03Capitol Aggregates, Inc.1fatal
  4. 041845 Texas Stone Products, Inc.1fatal
  5. 05Blue Star Materials LLC1fatal

Recent fatalities in Texas

Fall from scaffolds, walkways, platforms

Employee unhooked lanyard and fell through roof resulting in fatal injuries.

Struck by falling object

Unsure of what conditions contributed to the death

Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

Third party delivery driver of raw materials was found deceased trapped between the frame and dump bed of EE's I-Bar owned and operated delivery truck. The driver was located on the West edge of the iron ore stockpile.

Struck by rolling or sliding object

EE was operating an excavator in Pit 2 at SPS Atascosa. Pit 2 is located between two tailings ponds. 9:18 AM one of the tailings ponds breached causing tailings mixture to flow into the work site. Tailings mixture tipped over the excavator EE was operating cab side down. The front window broke, tailings mixture engulfed the cab & 75% of the vehicle. Employee could not escape.

Caught in, under or between running or meshing objects

Miner did not follow protocol. Therefore causing the death of the same.

Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

Employee in the thin veneer area was crushed by a pallet of stone that was placed on them by another employee in a wheel loader.

Caught in, under or between collapsing material or buildings

Trench was dug to repair drain pipe. No sloping or shoring protection system was in place. Trench was approximately 10 foot deep and 8 foot wide. Side wall collapsed and crushed worker.

Struck against a moving object

At this time unknown dump point failure causing haul truck operated by the deceased to back and roll down the dump point.

Flash burns (electric)

Arc flash event involving electrical equipment that resulted in burns to the employee's arms and torso as well as electrical equipment damage. The employee was injured and hospitalized after the incident but, passed away in the hospital on 08/22/2024.

Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

May 9, 2024 at 0800 hours when a manlift operator ran EE's manlift, an 8008 JLG, serial number 0300310942, into the canopy covering the C35 conveyor belt coming out of C35 tunnel. The operator was pinned between the roof edge and the man basket hand rail.

Struck by falling object

An over the road truck driver was crushed while trying to unload gravel. Driver was parked in a jackknife position while trying to unload some of the gravel in EE's bed. While attempting to dump, EE's lift cylinder snapped and the trucks trailer fell on top of the driver's side killing the driver. 911 was called immediately and MSHA was called after.

Fall from machine

Improper procedure performed, improper PPE, and not following SOP. *A customer truck driver fell from a large container mounted on the trailer of the truck while descending the container. The customer truck driver died from the injuries on August 7, 2023.

Struck by rolling or sliding object

An outside truck driver came onto this site to get loaded where the driver then parked their truck and was out of view from out scale house. Driver began to work on the back of the truck where the air bag blew out from under the truck and hit the driver in the head. Driver was not our employee, nor was the driver supposed to be working on their truck.

Struck by rolling or sliding object

While SC0539 Bulldozer was traveling on 1B Ramp, a large volume of material entered the road and contacted the bulldozer.

Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

At time of filing it is believed a front-end loader struck the back of the tractor trailer. The position of the victim at the time of the accident is still under investigation. The victim was found under the rear driver's side tires of the tractor.

Drowning

326 FL Excavator operator tracked over berm into Settling pond

Struck by falling object

Employee was working with a 3 man crew dismantling a Caterpillar 390F Excavator. During dismantling, EE was impacted by the counterweight. The other 2 crew members did not witness the accident.

Drowning

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

Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

Customer truck driver pulled into tarping area behind another truck and failed to set parking brake before exiting the truck. The driver did not use wheel chocks as required. The customer truck driver was fatally injured when customer's truck moved forward and pinned customer truck driver against the other drivers truck.

Struck by powered moving object

An employee was fatally injured during maintenance work on the hopper. EE was operating a CAT forklift in close proximity to a Volvo excavator. EE exited the vehicle without notifying the other employees working in the area. Other employees stated they heard a ""pop"" and found the forklift operator unconscious next to the fork of the forklift.

Related states

Source: US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) accident records, kept current weekly. State assignment uses MSHA's FIPS state code on the accident record.