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

DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994                   TAG: 9408050088
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KEN DAVIS and KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: PRINCETON, W. VA.                                 LENGTH: Medium

MINER RECOUNTS CAVE-IN THAT TOOK FRIEND'S LIFE

But nothing had prepared him for the July 25 cave-in at a Giles County limestone mine that killed his foreman and seriously injured him.

"We were totally unaware that anything like this was going to happen," Morgan said. "You kind of acquire an awareness that something might happen, but you try not to think about it."

From the safety of the nearly soundproof cab of his jumbo drill machine nearly a mile underground, he never heard the rumble of rock as a giant slab of limestone came crashing down, Morgan said.

But he did see it - a monolithic gray boulder that created an ominous shadow as it fell.

The slab landed in front of the drill machine, causing an air blast that knocked out its lights and blew the doors and windows off the cab.

By the time he realized what had happened, Morgan said, the slab had broken around the cab and left him pinned in a fetal position in almost total darkness, with the rock and broken glass pressed against his back, making it difficult to breathe.

"I went wild at first, like I guess anybody would," Morgan said. "Then I kind of assessed myself."

Morgan, who has taken first-aid training, knew he was not seriously injured, a fact he credits to God and the safety of the drill machine's cab.

"There was somebody in the cab with me - real high ranking," he said. "God was on my side."

But he was worried another cave-in might follow.

"That was my main concern," he said. "It ain't what you see that can hurt you as much as what you can't see."

His foreman, 37-year-old Barry Snider, was crushed by the limestone and presumed dead the day of the accident. His body was recovered three days later.

"I knew there was a pretty good chance he didn't survive," Morgan said, his voice barely audible. "The last thing I saw him do was turn to run."

Morgan, who was a good friend of Snider's as well as a co-worker, said the foreman was standing "in a presumably safe place" about 30 feet from where he was working when the rock fell.

"I'm sure he thought he was safe, and I knew I was safe," he said. "That's what I thought, anyway."

Morgan said he spent 45 minutes pinned down by the rock while his fellow miners were eating in an underground lunchroom where the sound of the cave-in probably wasn't heard.

But when he and Snider didn't show up for lunch, the other miners began looking for them. The roar of a truck's engine coming down the mineshaft was the first indication that he was going to survive, Morgan said.

"I feel really lucky," he said. "It's a good bunch of guys to work with. Everyone looks out for everyone else."

Morgan, who suffered a fractured pelvis and numerous cuts and bruises, was flown to Roanoke Memorial Hospital. He spent three days in the trauma center in the company of his wife, Mary Annette, and his daughters, Crystal, 13, and Santaya, 11.

"They were pretty scared," he said. "They didn't know what to think. Anything could have happened."

Since his release from the hospital, he has been at his two-story, four-bedroom brick house, watching television and receiving occasional therapy from nurses who come to help him walk and exercise his healing legs.

Morgan, 32, walks feebly with a walker, mostly taking small steps out to the porch to receive the regular visits from friends and co-workers.

"The mine and everyone else has been very supportive," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting back. That's my job."

The cave-in was the second accident in less than a year to hit Giles County mines about a mile apart that tunnel into the same bed of limestone.

Two workers were killed about 10 months ago in a cave-in at the APG Lime Corp., resulting in a federal inspection in which the mine was ordered to revise its operations.

State investigators working on the Eastern Ridge cave-in finished interviewing workers Thursday and were underground at the mine Wednesday inspecting the accident scene, said Mike Abbott, a spokesman for the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.

The investigators have reached no conclusions about the cause of the accident, Abbott said. During the rescue efforts last week, several inspectors noticed indications that water apparently had eroded space in the limestone above the rock fall and created a void, which mud subsequently filled. Such a void could have weakened the rock in the ceiling, they said.

A similar weakness, caused by a vein of calcite, caused the accident last year at APG Lime Corp.

But while investigators continue to search for the exact cause of the cave-in, Morgan said he believes no one was to blame.

"This, to me, was just a freak accident," Morgan said. "In a case like this it's kind of hard to blame anyone in particular."

Staff writer Brian Kelley contributed information to this story.

Keywords:
FATALITY