Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 4, 1994                   TAG: 9401040213
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO   
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COAL MINING DEATHS HIT LOW

The worker who died was not employed as a coal miner but worked for a company that had been contracted to plug old ventilation holes at a Buchanan County mine.

Geoffery L. Harrison, 22, of South Charleston, W.Va., was electrocuted on April 9 when the derrick truck he was operating struck a high-voltage line at the Virginia Pocahontas No. 6 mine. Harrison worked as a rigger for Alleghany Wire Service Inc.

Michael Abbott, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, said most of the credit for the record low number of coal deaths has to go to the miners themselves and to mine operators who have increased their vigilance when it comes to safety.

The state's coal industry experienced 12 deaths in 1992, including eight miners killed in the Dec. 7, 1992 explosion of the Southmountain Coal Co. No. 3 mine in Wise County.

In the wake of the Southmountain explosion the awareness of mine safety issues in the state has been heightened, Abbott said.

But since before Southmountain, he said, the lost-time injury rate at Virginia mines has been on the decline and stands below the national average.

The previous record low year for Virginia coal-mining fatalities was in 1987 when three people died.

The highest number of coal-mining fatalities in this century occurred in 1938 when 92 miners were killed. In 1884, a single explosion at the Laurel mine in Pocahontas killed 112 miners.

Nationwide, coal-mine fatalities were at a record low in 1993 as well. Last year, 47 coal-mining deaths were recorded around the country compared with 54 in 1992.

Mine roof falls accounted for most of the mine deaths nationally, followed by haulage, machinery and electrical accidents, according to Tom Brown, a spokesman for the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Roughly 9,000 production workers were employed in Virginia coal mines last year and about 144,000 nationwide.

In the non-coal sector of the Virginia mining industry, two miners were killed in 1992 at a limestone mine in Giles County.

Brian Keith Ratcliffe, 28, of Pearisburg and Timothy Wayne Francis, 41, of Peterstown, W.Va., died Sept. 9 when a huge rock fell on them from the roof of an APG Lime Corp. mine.

Keywords:
FATALITY

Memo: ***CORRECTION***