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The accident occurred on February 5 when the 33-year old victim with six years mining experience was repairing a damaged 995 volt trailing cable.
During a mine-wide power outage, the victim began repairing a damaged continuous mining machine trailing cable. While preparing to splice the third and final power phase, underground electrical power was restored and the electrical circuit breaker was engaged in the closed position causing a fatal electrical shock.
The continuous mining machine trailing cable plug was not tagged or locked out.
MSHA have issued a number of best practices to ensure similar accidents do not re-occur:
Personally lock-out and tag-out electrical circuits before you perform electrical work on a cable or component.
Do not rely on someone else to deenergize or disconnect a circuit for you.
Never assume that a circuit breaker will not be reset - even if there is no apparent reason for resetting the breaker.
Never disturb or ignore an electrical tag or lock.
Thoroughly communicate to determine that it is appropriate to reset a breaker.
