Coal Tattoo

U.S. records 2nd and 3rd coal deaths of 2016

Mine Explosion

My apologies for not following up on this sooner, but here’s the sad news reported out of western Pennsylvania earlier this week:

A West Virginia man is dead after a mining accident in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Officials with the Morgantown, West Virginia-based Mepco say 31-year-old Jeremy Neice was fatally injured Saturday evening near Mount Morris, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh.

Green County emergency authorities say the Danville, West Virginia, man was in an accident at about 6 p.m.

Mine officials say they have suspended operations at the mine and that federal and state mine safety agencies have been notified. They say the company is “deeply saddened” by Neice’s loss.

The accident comes about six months after the state Department of Environmental Protection cited Mepco for another miner’s death at the same mine.

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration said of the recent incident:

A 31-year-old miner was fatality injured on January 16 when a fall of material pinned the victim to the mine floor. First responders freed the victim who was then transported to the surface area of the mine and traveled by ambulance to Ruby Memorial Hospital.

This is the 2nd U.S. coal-mining death in 2016, according to MSHA’s count.

Updated: There was a 3rd coal-mining death also reported in western Kentucky. It doesn’t appear to have been added to MSHA’ s list yet, but here’s what MSHA has to say at this point:

A 36-year-old miner was fatality injured on Jan.19, 2016, when he became pinned between a continuous mining machine and the coal rib.  The continuous miner operator was transported from the mine to the Baptist Hospital in Madisonville Kentucky where he was pronounced dead.