Agency releases preliminary fatality data for 2014
Preliminary data released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) indicates that 40 miners died in work-related accidents at the nation’s mines in 2014, two fewer than in the previous year.* Coal mining deaths dropped from 20 in 2013 to 16 in 2014, the lowest annual number of coal mining deaths ever recorded in the United States. The previous record low was 18 in 2009.
While the numbers of coal mines and miners have recently declined, the number of deaths in 2014 is about half what the industry experienced in the early 2000’s, when the numbers of working coal miners were at comparable levels.