MSHA is going to bat for a Maine aggregate miner the Agency claims was unlawfully discriminated against for reporting alleged safety violations.

A haul truck driver was killed Tuesday afternoon in an underground limestone mine in Northern Kentucky.

Officials said 37-year-old Angela Common of Carrollton was operating a fully loaded 40-ton haul truck 800 to 900 feet underground at 2:45 p.m. when she lost control and was thrown from the vehicle, which then ran over her.  She was pronounced dead at the scene.  The accident occurred at Sterling Materials’ mine of the same name in Verona.

A draft publication is available for review that supports the use of a real-time device to determine the incombustible content of coal dust in underground mines.

Three mine safety experts will lead a mine research foundation set up as part of an agreement between government prosecutors and Alpha Natural Resources following the Upper Big Branch-South Mine tragedy.

They are Dr. Keith A. Heasley of West Virginia University’s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources; Dr. David H. Wegman, Emeritus Professor of Work Environment at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), Lowell; and Dr. Michael E. Karmis, professor and director of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech.

An administrative law judge (ALJ) has ruled that a truck scale at an Oregon quarry site is not a road and therefore MSHA’s berm standard does not apply.

The decision is important because previous ALJ rulings generally have held that truck scales are roads for purposes of the standard.  30 CFR 56.9300 requires the installation of berms or guardrails at mid-axle height “on the banks of roadways where a drop-off exists of sufficient grade or depth to cause a vehicle to overturn or endanger persons in equipment.”

The State of Alaska will allow the use of naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) in gravel for construction purposes under legislation approved last month.

The measure is intended to end a major impediment to construction projects in areas of the state, such as the Upper Kobuk region in the northwest, where such work has virtually ground to a halt since the state began enforcing federal workplace safety standards in 2003. 

A Kentucky surface coal operator apparently would have been well served by heeding MSHA chief Joe Main’s find and fix philosophy.

An April 11 settlement decision tells the tale.  Big Run Mining, Inc. rang up a $45,750 bill with the mine safety agency for 35 citations written last year at its Ky No. 8 Mine in Harlan County.  The tally represented settlement of an original assessment of $57,228. 

More citations and orders were issued at a Kentucky coal mine following an impact inspection than at any of the nine coal mines and two mineral mines MSHA visited during March.  The enforcement action against Perry County Coal Corp.’s E3-1 Mine resulted in 38 citations and 16 orders.

An MSHA inspector may not have saved West Virginia two coal miners from grievous bodily harm, but he surely embarrassed a risk-taking veteran foreman and taught a red-hat miner the importance the Agency places on working safely.