On Wednesday, May 14, 2014, a 25-year-old roof bolter operator with 1 year and 44 weeks mining experience was killed when he was pinned between a roof-bolting machine and the coal rib. The victim and another roof bolter operator were in the process of tramming the roof-bolting machine in the outby direction in the No. 3 entry on the No. 1 Longwall Tailgate. They had trammed the roof bolting machine from the 151 crosscut to approximately the 89 ½ crosscut when the accident occurred. The victim was found on the left side of the roof-bolting machine between the machine and the coal rib.
Best Practices
- Ensure everyone, including the equipment operator, is outside the machine-turning radius before starting or moving equipment.
- Walk behind moving mobile equipment when traveling in the same entry and maintain a safe distance between yourself and any equipment that is moving.
- Never position yourself in an area or location where equipment operators cannot readily see you.
- Develop policies and procedures for starting and tramming self-propelled equipment. Train all miners that would be exposed to the hazards.
- When moving self-propelled machines where the left and right traction drives are operated independently, low tram speed should be used.
- Never defeat any of the machine controls. Ensure that all operating devices function as designed.
- Install and maintain proximity detection systems to protect personnel and eliminate accidents of this type. See the proximity detection single source page on the MSHA website.
Click here for: MSHA Preliminary Report (pdf), MSHA Investigation Report (pdf).