This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A coal miner died last September in Carbon County's West Ridge Mine because the machine he was operating should have been out of service for repairs but wasn't because of inadequate weekly and pre-shift inspections, federal investigators said.
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration investigation into the Sept. 16, 2014, death of Alejandro Ramirez, 46, of Price, resulted in two citations to the mine operator, a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. Both were deemed "unwarrantable failures," a term applied to the worst violations, a step higher than "significant and substantial."
A company official said the "false accusations" will be challenged.
MSHA's report said Ramirez was delivering roof-support materials to an active mining area in a large diesel-powered machine that could bend directly behind the compartment where its driver sat. There were no witnesses to the fatal accident, the report said, noting that several co-workers found the victim crushed in a pinch point between the driver's compartment and the bent back of the machine.
Efforts to resuscitate him at the scene and in an East Carbon ambulance were unsuccessful.
"It was not known why the victim was partially outside of the operator's compartment," the MSHA report said, noting the machine did not have a seat belt or restraint system to keep the operator in the compartment.
More troublesome to investigators was the condition of the steering-control joystick in the driver's compartment. The knob originally on top of the joystick apparently was missing for some time and had been replaced with a piece of pipe tied into place with layers of electrical tape. The report said this jury-rigged handle weighed 15 ounces, 14 more than the original knob, possibly causing the tail end of the machine to swing around.
After inspecting the machine, MSHA specialists determined it was "unsafe to drive out of the mine and that it needed to be towed." The fuel tank was leaking and a pin that attached a forklift to its front was not installed. There also were problems with the brakes and automatic-shutdown systems for high temperatures or low oil pressure. Coal dust and diesel fuel had accumulated an inch deep on parts of the machine frame.
"MSHA's specialists determined the numerous violative conditions on the [machine] were obvious and had, with a high degree of probability, been in place prior to when the accident occurred," the report said.
Mine-maintenance workers said they had no knowledge of the jury-rigged joystick and their weekly inspection reports did not mention any of the other problems. Required pre-shift examinations of the equipment were submitted randomly, investigators found, the last two reports prior to the fatal accident making no note of any potential safety defects.
"The [machine's] non-compliance should have been obvious to a trained examiner," the MSHA report said. "… The mine operator engaged in aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence in that he failed to conduct adequate examinations" in compliance with a mandatory safety standard.
A statement from Murray Energy Media Director Gary Broadbent expressed condolences to the Ramirez family — "our miners are part of our family and the loss of one affects us all" — and took issue with MSHA's conclusion.
"We were deeply disappointed to read the MSHA accident report and its attempt to place blame on the operator," his statement said. "Frankly, there is nothing [the company] could have done to prevent this accident, and the alleged unwarrantable failures had nothing to do with the cause. We will vigorously defend against any such false accusations."
A native of Sinaloa, Mexico, who had worked six years at West Ridge, Ramirez left behind a widow, five children and six grandchildren.
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