A failure to conduct adequate workplace examinations in a specific area of a mine led to the drowning of a foreman who was installing a discharge waterline for a dewatering pump.
U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) investigators determined that the fatal incident occurred in part because the mine operator failed to conduct adequate examinations in the area where work was being done.
Waist-deep water and mud in work area
On Aug. 18, 2023, Christopher Finley reported for work at the Twin State Mining Inc. Mine No. 39, an underground coal mine located in McDowell County, West Virginia.
Finley was a section foreman, and following a meeting to discuss duties for the upcoming shift, the evening shift foreman asked him to help install a new discharge waterline on one of the mine’s dewatering pumps.
When the two foremen arrived at the work area, the evening shift foreman dropped Finley off and then went to set up some other equipment.
Finley began laying out the waterline, but found the work difficult because of waist-deep water and mud that had accumulated in the area. He experienced a lot of difficulty in walking because of the water’s depth and the thickness of the mud, which caused him to get stuck several times.
Foreman found face down in 10 inches of water
When the evening shift foreman returned, he was accompanied by one of the mine’s examiners who was conducting an examination at the time. Finley and the examiner discussed how deep the water was in the area. The examiner told Finley to be careful before he left to continue his examination elsewhere in the mine.
After the examiner left, Finley and the evening shift foreman began to work on the waterline. At one point, they had to work out of sight of each other but stayed within the range of verbal communication.
However, Finley stopped responding to the evening shift foreman. When the evening shift foreman went to check on Finley, he found him face down in about 10 inches of water. The evening shift foreman pulled Finley up from the water and began yelling his name, but Finley didn’t respond.
An emergency distress call was placed via the evening shift foreman’s radio and several other miners responded to the incident scene. They began CPR and continued until an ambulance arrived and emergency medical technicians took over rescue efforts. Finley was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Electrical or slip and fall hazards caused incident?
MSHA investigators found multiple electrical hazards around the dewatering pump, including:
- the ground-fault circuit interrupter wouldn’t trip the pump’s circuit breaker
- a 1-inch opening in the outer jacket of the pump’s power cable with moisture present inside the opening
- the handle on the control switch was stuck in the on (closed) position
- moisture found inside five places where the power cord had been spliced together, and
- splices in the power cord that didn’t use suitable connectors.
That led investigators to determine that:
- the pump circuit was energized at the time of the incident
- the pump circuit wiring contained a number of faulty splices capable of exposing standing water and wet surfaces to electrical energy
- some of the faulty splices were in contact with standing water and wet surfaces
- the circuit breaker wouldn’t trip during an electrical shock, and
- the standing water was dirty and contained significant contaminants that typically increase electrical conductivity in water.
While MSHA couldn’t determine why Finley fell and drowned in 10 inches of water. The agency also couldn’t determine if the conditions caused by the pump’s electrical hazards caused a non-lethal shock which resulted in Finley losing consciousness and falling into the water. The medical examiner’s report didn’t indicate electrical shock as a contributing cause of death.
The investigation also revealed that the mine operator didn’t comply with its own MSHA-approved ventilation plan. Complying with that plan would have prevented the build-up of water and mud in the area where Finley was working, which created slip and fall hazards.
All of these issues could have been detected and addressed with adequate examinations of the area in question. Examinations around the pump area were supposed to be conducted weekly, and while examinations were recorded, there were no notes regarding the hazardous conditions that MSHA said must have existed for an extended period of time.
MSHA: Inadequate weekly exams were a root cause
MSHA found that there were two root causes for the fatal incident:
- the mine operator’s failure to comply with its ventilation plan, which led to the accumulation of water in the area of the dewatering pump, and
- the mine operator’s failure to conduct adequate weekly examinations in the area around the dewatering pump.
To prevent a similar incident, the mine operator has removed all water and mud in the area around the pump and installed gravel to create a safe path of travel. The mine operator also re-trained its mine examiners concerning their responsibility in recognizing, reporting and correcting hazardous conditions they find during their weekly examinations.
