WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | 3 men killed after plunging 500 feet down air shaft at Indiana coal mine
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PRINCETON, Ind. (AP) -- A group of people being carried in a construction bucket plunged 500 feet down an air shaft at a coal mine Friday, and three men died, authorities said.
All other people at the site have been accounted for, said George Zugel, director of safety and health for Frontier-Kemper Constructors Inc., which is building the 550-foot vertical ventilation shaft at the Gibson County Coal mine in southern Indiana.
Crews were working to remove the bodies after the late-morning accident, Sgt. Jay Riley said.
The "sinking bucket" can hold six to 10 people and is about 6 feet high, worker John Ervin said. Authorities did not say whether anyone other than the three victims was in the bucket, and it wasn't clear whether they fell out of the bucket or the bucket itself fell.
"I don't understand how this could have happened," Ervin said.
At the start of a shift, the bucket typically takes about six people down to the work area at the bottom of the shaft, Ervin said. The bucket is inspected daily, he said.
The victims' names were being withheld until their families were notified, Zugel said.
The mine, owned by Tulsa, Okla.-based Alliance Resource Partners, is about 30 miles north of Evansville.
Debbie King, executive assistant for investor relations at Alliance, said the accident was not connected to the mine.
"It is a construction accident. We can't report on it because it's not our accident," she said.
Officials from the Indiana Department of Labor and the Indiana Bureau of Mines are investigating at the mine, said Labor Department spokesman Sean Keefer.
The mine began production in July 2000. The last fatality was in November 2001, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. The miner died after being pinned by equipment, and operator error was cited as the cause.
Last year, the mine administration cited the company for 353 safety violations, 127 of which were deemed "serious or significant," said Rodney Brown, a spokesman for the agency. The mine has faced 292 citations this year, 84 of which were considered serious and significant.
In 2006, the company produced more than 3.5 million tons of coal, ranking second among the state's coal producers, according to the Indiana Coal Council.
Gibson County Coal Mine Stats
Source: Annual statistics report for 2006 underground mining in Indiana
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Indiana Mine Inspection Report for Q2 2007
GIBSON COAL COMPANY - GIBSON MINE PREP PLANT AREA
INSPECTION DATE: 4/23/07
AREAS INSPECTED
1. Slope Head House
2. Raw Coal Belt
3. Raw Coal Stacker
4. Raw Coal Storage Silo Belt
5. Rotary Feed Belt
6. Plant Feed Belt
7. Refuge Belt
8. Clean Coal Belt
9. Clean Coal Stacker
10. Clean Coal Storage Bin
11. Truck Load Out Belt
12. Prep Plant
FINDINGS LAW VIOLATED
1. Slope head house 2nd deck at shaker needs cleaned IC 22-10-4-4
2. Head of raw coal stacker belt needs additional guarding at snub roller IC 22-10-10-14 a 1&2
3. Rotary feed belt head roller shaft mtr. side needs guarded IC 22-10-10-14 a 1&2
4. Bottom floor of rotary building needs cleaned IC 22-10-4-4
5. #403 refuge belt needs roller out of bracket removed IC 22-10-4-4
CORRECTIVE ACTION TAKEN
All violations were reported to management and work was being done to correct all conditions. Broken roller was removed immediately. Surface facility is well maintained and in excellent condition.
INSPECTION DATE: 6/11/07
AREAS INSPECTED
1. Unit #1
2. Unit #5
3. Unit #3
4. 1A belt
5. 1B belt
6. 3rd 42 N belt
7. Secondary escapeways from all units mentioned to bottom
8. Mine record books
FINDINGS LAW VIOLATED
1. Unit #1 face #8 needed top scaled down IC 22-10-5-2 (d)
2. #44 x-cut rib at corner of 1A tail opposite haul roadside needs
added support IC 22-10-5 (e)
3. 1B belt rib and top at #7 x-cut needs added support and
walkway cleaned IC 22-10-5 (e)/22-10-4-4
4. Wire rope in walkway at #3 x-cut on 1B belt needs removed IC 22-10-4-4
5. 1B belt walkway btw #20 and # 21 x-cut needs cleaned IC 22-10-4-4
6. 1B belt btw #17 and #18 x-cut rock hanging over belt needs removed IC 22-10-5 (d)
7. 1B belt at #6 x-cut loose rib needs pulled down and area flagged IC 22-10-5-2 (a)
8. 1B belt rib btw #2 and #1 x-cut needs pried down and cleaned up IC 22-10-2(d)
CORRECTIVE ACTION TAKEN
Rib at #6 x-cut was attended to. Top at #8 face unit #1 was taken down. All other violations were noted and being corrected. Mine was in good condition and personnel were helpful.
Source: http://www.in.gov/labor/mines/pdfs/MineInspectionReportQ2_070307.pdf
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About Gibson County Coal Mine
Gibson County Coal operates the Gibson mine, an underground mining complex located near the city of Princeton in Gibson County, Indiana. The mine began production in November 2000 and utilizes continuous mining units employing room-and-pillar mining techniques. The preparation plant has a throughput capacity of 700 tons of raw coal an hour. We refer to the reserves mined at this location as "Gibson North" reserves. We also control undeveloped reserves in Gibson County, which are not contiguous to the reserves currently being mined. We refer to these as the "Gibson South" reserves.
Production from Gibson is a low-sulfur coal, that historically has been primarily shipped via truck approximately 10 miles on U.S. and state highways to Gibson's principal customer, PSI Energy Inc.(d/b/a Duke Energy Indiana, Inc.), a subsidiary of Cinergy Corporation (d/b/a Duke Energy Corporation). Gibson's production is also trucked to our Mt. Vernon transloading facility for sale to utilities capable of receiving barge deliveries. We are in the process of constructing a new rail loop at Gibson with access to both the CSX and Norfolk Southern railroads, which we currently anticipate will expand the market for coal produced at Gibson beginning mid-year 2007.
Source: Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.
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