Fatal incident at Kentucky coal mine resulted from several safety lapses, report says
A fatal incident at a Kentucky surface coal mine last summer happened because of several safety lapses, according to a federal report.
The incident happened June 9 at the Advanced Restoration Technologies-1 surface mine in Morgan County, operated by NEV LLC, according a report released Dec. 16 by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.
John Hillard Sr., a 35-year-old truck driver from Illinois, was killed when he was hit by the bucket of a piece of an excavator.
Hillard and other drivers from JD’s Custom Transport had delivered a 10,000-gallon fuel tank to the mine. They were working to unload the 10-ton tank from a trailer when the incident happened.
The intent was to hook a chain to the tank, attach the other end to the bucket on the excavator boom, and lift the tank off the trailer.
Hillard stood between the bucket and trailer to attach the chain, according to the report.
The operator of the excavator yelled at Hillard from inside the cab of the machine to move, but Hillard didn’t hear him.
The operator then leaned out the window of the excavator cab to tell Hillard to move out from underneath the bucket, but inadvertently came in contact with the stick that controls the boom, the report said.
The bucket moved and hit Hillard. Workers called for an ambulance that arrived within 20 minutes, but Hillard could not be revived and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The MSHA report said that when Hillard entered the area under the excavator bucket, the excavator operator should have shut down the machine until Hillard was out of the way, and should have put a control in the locked position before getting out of the seat to yell at Hillard.
The safety manual says the lockout feature is designed to “protect against machine movement potentially caused by inadvertent contact with any hydraulic controls,” according to the MSHA report.
MSHA alleged in citations that the mine operator and the contract trucking company violated safety rules by not preventing a worker from being underneath equipment that was not properly secured.
The agency also cited the mine operator for allegedly failing to provide proper training in safe procedures for lifting the tank.
Hillard was married and had four children and another on the way, according to his obituary at Wallace Broadview Funeral Home in Broadview, Illinois.
People regarded Hillard as “big-hearted, supportive, funny, and the life of the party,” his obituary said.
“He had a penchant for making his immediate family, as well as, nieces and nephews, feel special,” the obituary said. “To know him was to love him, so the void he leaves behind will be felt by many!”
