In Pennsylvania, a 26-year-old mine roof bolter, Boyd Beer Jr., was killed June 10 at the Tracy Lynne Mine. Rosebud Mining owns the mine, located 30 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

According to MSHA, nine workers have been killed in U.S. coal mines in 2005, five of them between May 11 and June 10.

Prince “Peanut” Hagler, a motorman at Jim Walter No. 4 coal mine in Brookwood, Alabama, was the victim of a near-fatal accident at the bottom of the shaft. “Everyone was devastated when he lost both his arms,” said Mike Foster, a fellow member of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Local 2245 who was a co-worker and long-time friend of Hagler.

Foster reported in an interview that Hagler’s arms were crushed by a piece of mine equipment that Hagler was helping to unload from the cage. The equipment moved forward unexpectedly, pinning Hagler’s arms. The cage is an elevator that brings men and equipment from the surface down the shaft into the working part of the mine.

Hagler had a heart attack on the way to the hospital. Foster reported that Jim Walter’s head of “human resources” at the mine went to the hospital the next day and tried to blame Hagler for the accident, upsetting his family and angering his coworkers. Both Hagler’s arms had to be amputated. “This was negligence by the company,” Foster said. He said procedures in place for years for how to move the equipment involved had not been followed.

“Co-workers have taken up more than $4,000 for Peanut’s family,” Foster added. “We take up money every week for them.” Hagler, 56, has worked as a miner for nearly 30 years.

This incident follows two fatalities in other Alabama mines this year. On June 1, Robert Patilla, 42, an electrician, was fatally injured working underground at the Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company’s North River No. 1 mine in the west Alabama town of Berry, MSHA reported. The miner was working night shift in the section feeder, a machine that feeds coal onto a conveyor belt, when the rotary breaker started. The machine has rotating crusher teeth designed to break up large pieces of rock and coal. The mine was closed for a day.

On February 16, Joshua Spivey, a 28-year-old contract worker employed by BOSS Industries, was killed at the Kellerman Preparation Plant, near Brookwood in Tuscaloosa County. The worker fell from the second floor of the preparation plant construction site onto a concrete slab. According to a MSHA report, “The accident occurred because management failed to ensure that openings, through which men or materials could fall, were protected by railings, barriers, covers or other protective devices.” Spivey died from his injuries February 24.

Meanwhile, the Jim Walter No. 5 mine has been closed since late May due to flooding in the mine.

Thirteen miners were killed at that mine on Sept. 23, 2001, when two explosions rocked the mine. Before the disaster, union members had warned the company of explosive methane gas and other dangerous conditions in the mine. A federal safety investigation held the company responsible for the disaster.

Clay Dennison is a member of UMWA Local 2133 in Oak Grove, Alabama. Ryan Scott from Pittsburgh contributed to this article.  
 
 
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