Office of Miner’s Health Safety and Training Story Archives

Mine Shuttle Car Operator Killed in West Virginia

State authorities say a 44-year-old shuttle car operator has been killed at a mine in southern West Virginia.

The Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training says Luches Rosser of Man, West Virginia, was operating a locomotive when the incident occurred after 11 p.m. Thursday at the Pinnacle Mining Co. mine in Wyoming County.

Inspectors from the office are investigating. The mine was idle Friday.

The United Mine Workers of America says Rosser was a member of Local Union 1713, and its representatives are at the mine participating in the investigation.

Marshall Co. Sheriff: One Killed, One Injured In Electrical Accident

Editor’s Note: In the original version of this story, the Associated Press reported American Electric Power owns the McElroy Mine. That information was incorrect and the story now reflects that change.

Authorities say one worker was killed and another seriously injured in an electrical accident near a Marshall County coal mine.

Marshall County Sheriff’s Office received a call about the accident Monday afternoon. American Electric Power spokesman Jeri Matheney says the linemen were working for Virginia-based Davis H. Elliot. Murray Energy owns the McElroy Mine near Cameron. Matheney says the workers were replacing copper wire that had been stolen from an electrical line.

Sheriff Kevin Cecil says the neutral wire somehow came into contact with energized lines. Cecil says one worker died at the scene and another was in serious condition at a Morgantown hospital. Their names were not immediately released.

The West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training is investigating.

Official: Hundreds of Miners Tested Positive for Drug Use in Past Two Years

Lawmakers received the latest numbers Monday on miners who have tested positive for drugs under a fairly new state law.

The law went to effect on January 1, 2013, that, among many other provisions, required coal mining operators and certain employers to implement a substance abuse screening program for miners and mine safety professionals.

The law also requires the results of those screenings to be reported to the Director of the state Office of Miner’s Health, Safety and Training.

Eugene White, the director of that office, reported to date, 555 individuals have had their mining certifications temporarily suspended because of a failed drug test.

Seventy-nine of those have been reinstated through the appeals process and 69 individuals are seeking treatment. Two-hundred and sixty-nine will wait the three year period to have their certifications returned.

White said prescription drugs are the most common found in the screening process, followed by marijuana.

Bill Advances Closing Loopholes in Coal Miner Drug Testing

In the Energy, Industry and Mining Committee Tuesday, Senators took up a bill meant to close loopholes in the drug testing system for mine workers in safety positions.

There is already a notification system in place for any worker who fails, refuses to submit to or attempts to falsify a drug test.

Notification is sent to the state Office of Miner’s Health Safety and Training which keeps a record and may block that person’s next attempt to obtain a mining job.

“There’s a couple of loopholes in the way the existing statute,” committee counsel Dorian Burrell explained. “Basically, if they were to test positive and then resign or if they were never actually hired after testing positive, that could escape the notice.”

Burrell added that could mean people with drug or alcohol abuse problems could move from mine to mine without being detected.

The bill, supported by the Office of Miner’s Health Safety and Training, the industry and the unions, passed through the committee and now heads to Senate Judiciary.