Federal investigators shared more details about what caused the death of a coal miner in Boone County two weeks ago.
Kristopher Ball, a roof bolter, was electrocuted at the Coalburg Tunnel Mine Sept. 1, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The agency said in its preliminary report that he’d come in contact with a hook energized by a 480-volt cable that supplied power to a roof bolting machine. Ball, 33, had 12 years of experience.
Ball’s death came less than two weeks after that of William Richards on Aug. 17 at the Tunnel Ridge Mine in Ohio County.
Ball is the fourth coal miner killed on the job in West Virginia this year. Nine coal miners have died nationwide this year, approaching the 10 mine fatalities that occurred last year.