MSHA finds Barbour County mine operator failures caused fatal accident

MSHA found Century Mining failed to maintain a personnel carrier in safe operating condition, perform sufficient preoperational examinations or ensure the number of miners traveling on each personnel carrier didn’t exceed the available number of seats when transporting miners.

Barker, of Philippi, died after he was pinned under an overturned two-person carrier, according to the report.

After Barker sat atop the carrier with his feet down behind the seats as a passenger with two others on board, one of the other passengers, Engineer Adam Elkins, accidentally depressed an emergency stop button between the seats, according to the report. The emergency stop shut off power to the vehicle, causing it to come to a stop and start drifting backward downhill, the report says.

Elkins pulled the emergency stop button back out, restoring power to the vehicle, but the tram control didn’t work. Neither a foot brake nor a hand-activated parking brake worked when Elkins applied them, according to the report.

Picking up speed, the carrier traveled roughly 210 feet and veered toward a passenger-side rib, the report says. The carrier overturned after the passenger-side rear tire traveled up the rib, resulting in Barker and William Allen Jr., another surveyor, ending up underneath the carrier and Elkins thrown clear, the report says.

Allen found Barker pinned under the passenger side and started CPR after he couldn’t find a pulse, according to the report. Barker was pronounced dead roughly an hour later after he was taken to Broaddus Hospital, according to the report.

Century Mining did not respond to a request for comment. Century Mining is controlled by Greenwich, Connecticut-based American Metals & Coal International Inc.

‘Unwarrantable failure’ found in mine safety

The MSHA report follows the summer release of a West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training report on the incident that similarly found Barker was entrapped when what the report said was a rubber-tired, 3,100-pound vehicle overturned.

The state report said mine management couldn’t find any operator manuals for the vehicle the Grace Equipment Co. Inc.’s #2 Stryker 72, at the start of the investigation. The report noted that the mine section where the incident occurred had no rail system installed.

MSHA issued Century Mining a citation the agency may assign when it finds an “unwarrantable failure� of an operator to comply with a mandatory health or safety standard. The MSHA report found Century Mining had committed a violation amounting to an unwarrantable failure through no effort to take the vehicle out of service or correct the deficiency in the brakes reported to a maintenance supervisor.

The Longview Mine is a non-union mine with 230 total employees producing nearly 3,500 tons of coal daily, the state report said.

Lengthy history of violations

The mine had a long history of safety and health violations leading up to the incident. MSHA had issued 85 citations at the Longview Mine since the start of 2019 as of March 2023, including seven to mine operator Century Mining for reported violations deemed “Significant and Substantial,� according to agency data.

The agency uses that designation for hazards there is a reasonable likelihood could result in serious injury. They have cited Century Mining for reported Significant and Substantial violations of regulations requiring protection of power wires and cables, insulation of permanent splices in trailing cables, and maintenance of respirable dust at or below 1.5 milligrams per cubic meter of air.

MSHA issued Century Mining 30 additional citations for Significant and Substantial violations since Barker’s death, according to agency records.

West Virginia has been the site of three mine fatalities in 2023, after having had four last year.