MSHA reported that five fatalities took place in January 2025 at mines in Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Two of these accidents took place at coal mines, while the others occurred at construction sand and gravel and dimension stone operations.
On January 10, a mobile bridge carrier operator died at Wilson Creek Energy’s Acosta Deep coal mine in Somerset County, Pa., when he was pinned between the mobile bridge carrier and the coal rib. MSHA classified the accident as Powered Haulage in its preliminary report.
On January 29, a miner at Lexington Coal’s Twilight MTR surface coal mine in Boone County, W.Va., was fatally injured. MSHA classified the accident as Fall of Face, Rib, Side or Highwall. A preliminary report was not available at press time. Local media reported the mine has been issued 245 safety and health violations by MSHA since April 2019.