Yay, Coal! US Mine Fatalities In 2017 So Far Exceed Those In All Of 2016
Ray Hatfield Jr. was six months into his latest coal job when he was crushed to death in a Kentucky mine. Hatfield, a 23-year industry veteran, was cleaning a conveyor belt that shuttled coal to the surface of the Appalachian mine on the morning of Jan. 26. When his clothing got caught, he was pulled into the machine and killed. Hatfield, 42, left behind a wife and three kids.
The fatality was preventable, investigators from the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration determined, citing a host of safety violations at the facility near Pikeville. “Hatfield was working in a deathtrap, with not even minimal safety requirements being met," said Tony Oppegard, a Lexington, Kentucky-based attorney who represents mining families and has studied the government’s report and been in touch with the Hatfield family’s attorney. “This is what a lot of Appalachian coal miners have to put up with.”
Ten other U.S. coal workers have died on the job this year, marking the first uptick in fatalities since 2010. The deaths come at a time when the Trump administration is promising to roll back federal regulations that it says were part of a "war on coal." There have already been more fatalities so far this year than in all of 2016, as U.S. production of the fossil fuel rises.
Production Rebound
Industry leaders say the rash of fatalities is a result of increased mining activity. They point out that almost all of the coal deaths -- including Hatfield’s -- have involved workers who’d been employed at their current mine for less than a year. Overall U.S. coal output is up 15 percent through the end of July compared with a year ago amid higher prices for natural gas -- a competing power plant fuel -- and increased demand from China.
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-04/as-trump-sings-coal-s-praises-mine-fatalities-are-on-the-rise
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