Fatality Is 2nd In Recent Months At Taylor County Mine

Colton Walls, 34, is the fifth coal miner to sustain fatal injuries on the job in West Virginia this year.

A yellow miner's hat is placed on top of pieces of coal, with mining tools and an orange safety jacket.

A Taylor County coal miner was killed on the job, Gov. Jim Justice said Friday, the second fatally injured in recent months at the same mine.

Colton Walls of Bruceton Mills, a longwall electrician at the Arch Resources Leer Mine, died of his injuries Friday, Justice said.

Walls, 34, is the fifth coal miner to sustain fatal injuries on the job in West Virginia this year. A total of 10 coal miners nationwide have died this year, according to federal data.

In August, another worker died at the Arch Resources Leer Mine in Taylor County. A worker died last month at the Arch Resources Mountaineer II mine in Logan County. 

The state Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration are investigating.

A request for comment from Arch Resources did not result in an immediate response. St. Louis-based Arch and Consol Energy, of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, plan to merge early next year to form Core Natural Resources.

Author: Curtis Tate

Curtis is our Energy & Environment Reporter, based in Charleston. He has spent more than 17 years as a reporter and copy editor for Gannett, Dow Jones and McClatchy. He has written extensively about travel, transportation and Congress for USA TODAY, The Bergen Record, The Lexington Herald-Leader, The Wichita Eagle, The Belleville News-Democrat and The Sacramento Bee. You can reach him at ctate@wvpublic.org.

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