Representatives from the agency’s Madisonville office presented the award this week to 41 workers from three shifts at the plant, which processes coal for shipment from the neighboring Elk Creek underground mine, and presented each with a certificate.

Facility safety director Jamie Woodruff said the group had weekly safety briefings, about three times the frequency required by federal regulations.

“We go over all of the different routes to take and ways to do things in our weekly meetings,” he said.

“We give statistics on other mine fatalities and accidents. It keeps the reality fresh on their minds so that they’re constantly aware of the need for safety.

“We have observation time to watch each other’s methods and techniques to ensure that everyone is wearing their proper equipment and handling things the way they’re supposed to. It’s a team effort.”

OMSL district manager Ronnie Drake said safety was “an attitude of an individual”

“Eight years without a lost time injury is a phenomenal record,” he said.

“The company goes beyond the training requirements of the law and strives to be the best they can be. Each employee should be extremely proud of their achievement.”

OMSL executive director Freddie Lewis was equally happy with the achievement.

“They have set a standard that all in our industry should be proud of,” he said.

“The most important thing is our coal miners going back home to their family at the end of the shift and by the ‘choices’ and ‘behavior’ they have displayed on the job shows us they want to reach that goal also.”

Alliance acquired the Hopkins County mining complex in January 1998, and the 1200-ton-per-hour capacity preparation plant has been in operation since the 1960s.