MSHA: Operator failures lead to double fatality at West Virginia coal mine
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has released the findings of its investigation into an accident in May at Brody Mine No. 1 that killed two miners. The underground coal mine, located in Boone County, West Virginia, is operated by Brody Mining LLC, a subsidiary of Patriot Coal Corp.
Eric Legg, a 48-year-old continuous mining machine operator, and Gary Hensley, a 46-year-old roof bolting machine operator, were fatally injured on May 12 by a large pillar of coal that burst while retreat mining was underway. Retreat mining is an underground mining technique that involves extracting coal while leaving behind pillars for support, then returning to mine the pillars in a precise sequence that causes the roof to collapse as mining “retreats” back toward the mine’s entrance. The pillar burst caused a large amount of coal from the mine ribs, or walls, to be suddenly and violently ejected into the mine entry, filling the entry to within 30 inches of the mine roof.