Along with Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch
A coal miner was killed Tuesday morning after he was struck by a coal hauler at the Highland No. 9 mine in western Kentucky. Thirty-four-year-old Eli Eldridge of Sturgis, Kentucky, had 15 years’ experience in the mines. He is the 15th coal miner killed in the US this year and the second in Kentucky. His death comes on the heels of an announcement earlier this month that the mine was preparing for “substantial workforce reductions.”
The Highland No. 9 mine is owned by Patriot Coal and operated by its subsidiary Highland Mining Company LLC. The US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has cited the mine for more than 700 health and safety violations this year. More than 250 of these violations were classified as “significant and substantial” (S&S), where there existed “a reasonable likelihood” of serious injury.
According to MSHA records, more than 30 accidents have been reported at the Highland No. 9 this year. Meanwhile, the mine’s non-fatal incidence rate has surged in recent years from 2.78 in both 2011 and 2012 to 9.30 and 7.28 in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The national average during these years is about 3.30.
In 2009, Highland No. 9 was included, along with Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine, on a confidential list of the 48 most dangerous mines in the US. The list was made public in the aftermath of the UBB disaster in April 2010, which took the lives of 29 West Virginia miners. Of the 32 coal mines on the list, four were Patriot operations.
The list demonstrated how dangerous mines routinely contested MSHA citations in order to avoid being designated a pattern of violation (POV) mine, a classification ostensibly placing them under a more aggressive safety inspections regime by the agency. At the time, Highland Mining was contesting more than half of all its violations at the No. 9 mine.