West Virginia teen is first US coal mining fatality of 2011

[Hannah Bell]

Nineteen-year-old John C. Lester, a West Virginia coal miner with just over 90 days on the job, was killed in an equipment accident January 27. His death is the first coal mining fatality of 2011, but he is the 36th West Virginia coal miner to die in the past year.

The state’s Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training said that at the time of his death Lester was still working as an apprentice miner, or a “red hat,” in the Jims Branch No. 3B mine. The site is operated by the Baylor Mining company.

The mine is one of a multitude of underground operations in Wyoming County, an area crippled by long-term economic distress. The victim’s young age gives some indication of the limited prospects facing thousands in the coalfields region.

Wyoming County, like all its contiguous counties, has deep poverty and a hemorrhaging population due to the collapse in coal mining jobs and the shuttering of US Steel in the 1980s. Today, one in four residents live below the official poverty line; per capita income is barely $14,200. The county suffers double-digit unemployment on top of a labor force participation rate of only 40 percent.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has idled operations at the Jims Branch mine while inspectors investigate. A preliminary report states that Lester was killed just after 12pm when “he became caught between the moving No. 3 conveyor belt and the metal dip pan over the No. 3 conveyor belt that connected to the No. 4 conveyor belt discharge head roller.” Lester’s body was found lying on the belt. No other details have been reported as of this writing.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/mine-f01.shtml

[antigone382]

1. More from the article:

Like many underground mines in the region, the Jims Branch site is a smaller, advance mining operation that has increased its production levels every year since it was opened under Baylor’s administration in 2007. Although only 26 miners are employed underground—and only 9 were on-site at the time of John Lester’s death—the mine produced over 142,000 tons last year, with production in the fourth quarter nearly double that of the first.

Not surprisingly, increases in injuries, accidents and violations parallel the tonnage increases. Last year, the operation was cited for safety violations more than 70 times. Baylor Mining operates several other mines in the area with similar safety records.

In January of this year, the mine saw two other accidents, including a rib roll that struck a miner as he ran a shuttle car January 12, and a miner who suffered a neck injury from an uneven mine roof area as he was working on a belt January 2. The mine area where Lester was working had a roof height of only three and a half feet, making for cramped working conditions close to massive machinery.

Such hazards are the norm in the industry. Forty-eight coal miners were killed on the job last year, 35 of them in West Virginia, including 29 who died in the explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia April 5.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/mine-f01.shtml

[antigone382]

2. k&r

The coal industry in Appalachia--a deep national shame, ignored by all because of its implications: the bodies of miners keep the lights on. The tops of mountains keep the lights on. Dispossession and the absence of opportunity keep the lights on.

[antigone382]

3. kick n/t

[Tsiyu]

4. Thanks for posting this HB

More sadness in a place full to the brim with it

:kick: and rec

[Brickbat]

5. K&R in memory of young John Lester.

Mourn the dead, fight like hell for the living.