Rib failure fatalities exceed roof fall deaths for 2nd consecutive year
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) will again focus its annual mine roof control program on efforts to improve mine rib control during the 2012 Preventive Roof Rib Outreach Program, known as PROP. For the second consecutive year, in 2011, fatal rib roll accidents in underground coal mines outnumbered more typical fatal roof fall accidents. Most recently, on June 25, a coal miner in eastern Kentucky suffered fatal injuries when he was crushed by a rib roll.
Roof control in underground mines involves securing the top as well as the sides of travel ways, or walls, which are referred to as "ribs" in underground coal mines. The number of injuries resulting from roof and rib failures increased from 439 in 2010 to 484 in 2011. In 2010, the number of fatal rib failure accidents (in which the walls in the underground mine crumble from pressure) exceeded the number of typical roof fall accidents (where the roof falls from the top of the mine) for the first time ever, by a margin of one. In 2011, fatal rib failure accidents again outnumbered fatal roof fall accidents by one.