According to the Associated Press, late Wednesday afternoon local time the agency found three violations as the result of its investigation that it said contributed to the incident at the Freeze Fork mine in Logan County in February 2008. The worker received neck and head injuries after the highwall collapsed and his truck was buried.
Specifically, MSHA found that the operator did not attend to cracked and loose rock situated above a haul road and did not protect its truck drivers, the agency said.
Requests for additional information from both MSHA and Massey were not immediately returned.
Freeze Fork is operated by Massey division Highland Mining.
According to MSHA statistics, the operation has not had an employee or contractor fatality in at least the last 14 years. Its operator non-fatal days lost (NFDL) rate for 2008 was 2.11 on a total of just under 190,000 man-hours and 734,000 tons produced.