The June 2017 death of a coal miner at the Gateway Eagle Mine in West Virginia resulted from Rockwell Mining LLC's failure to enforce provisions in its approved roof control plan, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration's final report.
Rodney Osborne, 32, was pinned between the cutter head of a remote-controlled continuous mining machine and a coal rib after he turned off a proximity detection system designed to stop the machine if a miner gets too close.
The administration, or MSHA, said in its final accident report, released Feb. 2, that Rockwell did not enforce provisions of its roof control plan to prevent miners from getting too close to the machine while repositioning it and routinely allowed miners to override the proximity detector. The override had been activated 87 times for over 57 minutes during Osborne's shift, MSHA found, and was used about 1,000 times in the week before his death.
The agency also released its final report on the 11th coal mine fatality of 2017. Jason Stevens was dismantling a water box in August when it fell, struck him and pinned him to the floor of a preparation plant at the Blue Mountain Energy Inc.-operated Deserado mine in Rio Blanco County, Colo.
The accident occurred because the mine operator did not ensure that the water box was securely blocked against motion during the dismantling process, MSHA found.
