by brian hendrix
Last June, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) published a Request for Information titled, “Safety Improvement Technologies for Mobile Equipment at Surface Mines and for Belt Conveyors at Surface and Underground Mines.” MSHA asked stakeholders to submit “[b]est practices, training materials, policies and procedures, innovative technologies, and any other information they may have to improve safety in and around mobile equipment, and working near and around belt conveyors.”
MSHA said “[m]ining safety could be substantially improved by preventing accidents that involve mobile equipment at surface coal mines and metal and nonmetal mines and belt conveyors at surface and underground mines.” In the RFI, MSHA noted that “[s]ince 2007, 61 miners have been killed in accidents involving mobile equipment. MSHA investigated these accidents and determined that contributing factors in many included: (1) no seat belt, seat belt not used or inadequate seat belts; (2) larger vehicles striking smaller vehicles; and (3) equipment operators’ difficulty in detecting the edges of highwalls or dump points . . .”
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