A 19-year-old miner with three months of experience was killed by an automated telescopic portable radial stacker when his left foot got pinned by one of the vehicle’s tires, causing him to get run over.
U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) investigators found that the incident occurred in part because the mine operator failed to conduct proper workplace examinations and provide adequate new miner training.
Miner found lying down in area of radial stacker
On May 2, 2023, Izak Wixon, a 19-year-old ground man employed by Bowes Construction, was working at the company’s Plant 280 portable surface construction sand and gravel mine in Brookings County, South Dakota.
Wixon completed checks of the mine’s processing plant and then began travelling around the plant performing clean-up duties as needed.
The plant’s operator shut the equipment down at 10:30 a.m. after identifying a defective return roller on the radial stacker that supplied the plant. The radial stacker was set up to travel radially around a pivot point in a defined arc-shaped path. It had a telescoping conveyor system to distribute material in an arc-shaped stockpile.
Removing and replacing the defective roller took about 30 minutes. Once the operator started the plant again, he went around cleaning up material beneath the conveyors.
On his way to check another conveyor, the operator saw Wixon lying down on the ground in the area of the radial stacker. He went to check on Wixon, noticed his injuries and then ran over to de-activate the radial stacker’s automatic travel function.
The operator called for help via radio but didn’t get a response. However, his calls were heard and a few miners did respond to the scene of the incident. At 12:44 p.m., the company’s president called 9-1-1 and then met emergency responders at the mine’s entrance to escort them to the incident scene.
Wixon was pronounced dead at the scene about an hour later.
Investigators found equipment was unsafe
The MSHA investigation revealed that Wixon was found with a crushed can of penetrating oil in an area of the radial stacker that should have been restricted while the vehicle was in motion.
MSHA found that the mine operator failed to conspicuously mark this restricted area, which led Wixon to get too close while the machine was moving. His foot got pinned by one of the vehicle’s tires, which led to him eventually getting run over by the radial stacker.
MSHA investigators looked over the radial stacker and tested it for any operational deficiencies. They found that the radial stacker was unsafe because:
- it was operated on loose, unconsolidated material
- it was operated on an un-level runway
- there was uneven and inconsistent movement because the right-side drive chain erratically cycled from slack to tension, and
- there were inconsistent stopping distances because slack caused portions of the drive chain to catch and bind.
All of this contributed the incident.
Investigators also determined that Wixon’s new miner training wasn’t properly conducted by the company as he wasn’t adequately instructed on safe work procedures regarding the radial stacker. While he was trained to stay out of the radial stacker’s path, he wasn’t properly trained regarding the restricted access areas of the vehicle.
A lack of workplace examinations on the day of the incident, or in the days leading up to the incident, contributed to the incident as well. Proper examinations would have caught the issues investigators found with the radial stacker, according to MSHA.
Company developed new procedures, training program
Ultimately, the root causes of the fatal incident were the company’s failure to:
- provide conspicuous markings warning against access to restricted areas of the radial stacker while it was in motion
- conduct adequate workplace examinations in the area around the radial stacker, and
- provide adequate new miner training.
In response, the company has:
- installed signage regarding the restricted areas around the radial stacker
- trained miners on how to conduct a workplace examination with the use of workplace examination forms, and
- identified and corrected the deficiencies in its training plan.
The company’s current employees were also re-trained under the new training plan.
