Current Trends in Reducing Groundfall Accidents in U.S. Coal Mines

Details

• Personal Author:
  Barczak, Thomas M. ; Mark C ; Pappas, Deno M.
• Description:
  Ground falls (roof and rib) have historically been responsible for about 50% of all fatalities in bituminous underground coal mines. In some recent years, the number of ground fall fatalities has approached zero, indicating that significant progress has been made. On the other hand, last year's Crandall Canyon twin mine disasters, in which 9 miners perished in violent coal bumps, provided a stark reminder that complacency is premature. One important success has been a great reduction in the number of miners killed inby roof supports. Throughout the 1990's these accounted for nearly half of all roof fall fatalities, but there have just been two inby incidents in the past 5 years. Progress has also been made in pillar recovery. Safer mining technologies have reduced the number of fatal incidents, but some recent failures have underlined the need for careful management of the retreat mining process. On the other hand, more than 400 miners continue to be injured each year by rock falling from between supports, and 100 more are injured by rib falls. Together, these two categories also account for a large percentage of recent ground fall fatalities. Available technologies such as roof screen, rib bolting, and inside control roof bolters could dramatically reduce injury and fatality rates if they were used more widely. Further advances in these areas will likely be the next big advance in ground control safety. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Feasibility Studies Hazardous Substances Mining Occupational Health Risk Assessment Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention Accident-rates Coal-mining Ground-control Ground-stability Injuries Injury-prevention Mining-industry Retreat-mining Rock-falls Room-and-pillar-mining Underground-mining

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• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Publisher:
  Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc.
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 8 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRL - Pittsburgh Research Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20035144
• Citation:
  2009 SME Annual Meeting and Exhibit, February 22-25, Denver, Colorado, Preprint 09-069. Littleton, CO: Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc., 2009 Feb; :1-5
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  2009 SME Annual Meeting and Exhibit, February 22-25, Denver, Colorado, Preprint 09-069
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:fe88f485810c024bd95c66ce385efb97ab0fb41c2a576fee500f7d4676dd74b2dc62bda8858d26c76f39322662b417654c61c509035ef6ef1bb5c9531937b3dc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/227080/cdc_227080_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 118.41 KB ]