Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 3, 1992 TAG: 9201030135
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORTON LENGTH: Medium
9 KILLED IN VA. MINING ACCIDENTS IN '91
There were nine fatal accidents at Virginia mines in 1991, the fifth straight year that deaths have stayed in single digits, a state official said Thursday.The number of miners killed last year went up by four - the number of people who died in a February mine-shaft collapse in Lee County, the state's worst mining accident since 1983.
However, the rate of time lost because of injury at Virginia mines was below both the national average and the state rate of the year before, according to state Division of Mines and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The rate is a "truer gauge" of overall mine safety, said Division of Mines spokesman Mike Abbott.
Most of the serious accidents continue to occur in small underground mines, he said.
The roof collapse in Lee County happened at a small mining operation, LJ's Coal Corp. The state investigation determined that the company violated its approved roof-control plan. The state said miners cut coal ribs in a manner that created excessively wide and unsupported work areas.
The incident was the first multiple-fatality mining accident since 1983, when an explosion killed seven miners near McClure.
Two others killed in underground mines last year also were employed by small companies.
An employee of JAMB Mining Inc. in Dickenson County was killed when the side of a mine shaft gave way on Sept. 30, Abbott said. And a worker at Brent Coal Corp. in Buchanan County was electrocuted Nov. 11 while attempting to splice an electrical cable on a shuttle car when the power had not been turned off.
But Abbott said the overall serious accident rate continues to decline because there are fewer miners working underground, machinery is safer and training has improved.
The number of annual deaths in Virginia were normally in the 30s in the 1950s and in the 20s or high teens through the 1970s. The average has been 10 in the past 10 years.
Keywords:
FATALITY