Buckhannon, WV—West Virginia Wesleyan College students have found significant omissions with Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA) coal mining accident reports.  Dr. Kathleen Long, professor of communication, and Dr. Robert Rupp, professor of history, and twenty-one Wesleyan students developed units of analysis and categories to code the federal mining fatal accidents reports.  The group gathered and analyzed 381 MSHA Fatal Accident Reports from 1995 through 2005 during the spring semester as part of the Coal Mining Accident Research Class: Content Analysis.  The final report, which also included other significant findings, was submitted to J. Davitt McAteer, who was appointed to oversee West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin III’s team investigating the January 2, 2006 Sago mine accident which claimed the lives of twelve area men.   McAteer is the former assistant secretary of MSHA and is a noted authority on coal mining safety.

“The students found the accident reports do not have a consistent format nor do they contain consistent information,” says Dr. Long.  “Other questions raised include—
does the fact the investigator works for MSHA cause unintentional filtering of the content of the accident reports?  Does the report serve only to document the accident and events surrounding the accident? Are the reports even considered a tool for learning how to prevent similar accidents in the future?”

“We believe if we are to learn from these accidents and their reports, MSHA must create a template so that future documents have the same areas of data reported,” adds Dr. Rupp.  “All future reports should be completely revised to ensure a more educational focus.   This would allow us to have a much better understanding of the causes of coal mining accidents.  We are convinced these improvements can help significantly lower fatalities in this industry.”

Critical missing information in the reports included the age of the miners killed, their level of mining experience, their level of mining experience in that particular mine, and too many “other” categories.  “There is clearly a need to expand category definitions in order to help us learn more about these accidents,” adds Dr. Rupp.

Among the major findings by Wesleyan students were:  (1) underground mines accounted for approximately twice as many fatalities as surface mines from 1995 to 2005; (2) West Virginia and Kentucky shared the highest number of fatalities followed by Alabama, Pennsylvania, and Virginia; (3) while explosions with entrapment of multiple miners attract media and subsequent national attention to safety in coal mining, the single deaths, occurring one at a time, constitute the bulk of the fatalities over the past decade; (4) ignition/explosion and entrapment constitute only 7% of mine fatalities during 1995-2005.  In contrast, miners’ death by powered haulage, falls of roofs, ribs and high walls, machinery accidents and electrocutions accounted for 82.4% of fatal accidents.  Of these categories, powered haulage is clearly the largest single cause of mine fatalities across both surface and underground mines;  (5) the collected data did not support a hypothesis that certain months might have a higher number of accidents; (6) in underground mines, the most dangerous occupations are equipment operators, electricians, and roof bolters while equipment operators and truck drivers are the most dangerous jobs in surface mining; (7) miners who work in mines of 75 or fewer employees work in a much higher risk environment.

The group also discovered other disturbing trends with their research.  “We were surprised to find that that only 12.6% of accidents involving the death of a miner were reported to MSHA within 15 minutes of the accident,” says Dr. Long.  “Just under half notified the government agency within one hour of the accident.”

“We hope this report serves as an impetus for significant change in accident reporting,” concludes Dr. Long.  “We believe overhauling accident reporting can lead to changes in coal mining practices that will save lives.” 

To read the entire Wesleyan report, go to www.wvwc.edu.  For more information about the report, please contact Dr. Long at (304) 473-8234 or Dr. Rupp at (304) 473-8561.