According to the agency’s preliminary report, Tony Swiney, 44, died on November 4 at McCoy Elkhorn Coal’s No. 23 operation in Kimper.

Classified by MSHA as a powered haulage accident, the worker was fatally injured after being struck by the cable plug of a shuttle car trailing cable.

“The cable had been wrapped around the canopy post of a scoop in order to pull the cable from one location to another when the cable became fouled and unwound from the canopy post, striking the victim,” the report stated.

Swiney, a 25-year mining veteran, it said, was a section foreman with eight years of experience in his position and two years of experience working at McCoy, a 110-worker operation with a mining height of 4 feet, 8 inches.

He was acting as a scoop operator at the time of the incident.

“MSHA personnel are onsite investigating this tragic accident and will determine its cause. Once MSHA’s investigation is complete, our investigation report will be made publicly available online.”

The death is the 44th coal mining-related fatality in the United States this year.