Safety devices for mines discussed
Share with others:
Coal miners and mine operators alike support new safety equipment on underground continuous mining machines to prevent them from accidentally crushing workers, but disagree on how quickly the proximity-detection systems must be installed.
"I think everyone is pretty much on the same page there, except for implementation," said Ron Bowersox, a safety specialist with the United Mine Workers of America, after a public hearing at the Marriott Courtyard in North Strabane. Referring to the mine owners' request for 36 months instead of 18, he continued, "If it said to implement it in three years, they'd want six years."
About 30 people attended the hearing Tuesday before four representatives of the Mine Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Department of Labor. It was the third of four hearings on the regulation, which has been in development since 2002.
The systems would require miners to wear a small beacon detectable by a sensor on the mining machine. If a miner came within five feet, warning lights and alarms would go off. If a miner came within three feet, the machine would shut down.
The system wouldn't operate while the machine was removing coal, when a remote control operator must stand close behind as it burrows slowly forward. It would be used only when the machine was being moved to another site, which is when accidents have occurred. The Mine Safety and Health Administration believes that the detection system could have prevented 30 deaths and 220 pinning, crushing and striking injuries between 1984 and 2010. Three systems have been tested and approved by the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
"We support the rule," said R. Henry Moore, a representative of the Pennsylvania Coal Association, which represents mine operators. But he said some of the rule's terms were ambiguous and that its call to retrofit 1,150 machines in 18 months was "overly ambitious."
To do the job right, he said, it should be done either during initial construction of new machines or during a routine rebuild. Allowing for removal and reinstallation of the enormous machines, he estimated that it would take each of them out of commission for six weeks, and that the 18-month deadline would overwhelm existing maintenance facilities and engineers.
"We would suggest a 36-month period to better ease the transition," he said.
Todd Moore, director of safety for Consol Energy, said his company already has a proximity-detection system on the continuous miner in a mine in Buckhannon, W.Va., and is testing the system on shuttle cars and scoops elsewhere.
First Published October 30, 2011 12:00 am
