In a preliminary report of the fatality, the agency indicated that 29-year-old Tyson Mayall, a rock truck operator, had just six months of mining experience at the time of the accident last week at Reed Minerals’ Town Creek complex in Sipsey, Walker County.

“The driver (victim), suspecting an oil leak on the truck, raised the dump bed, exited the operator’s compartment and was standing against the hand railing at the back of the cab,” MSHA said.

“Unaware that the bed was dropping, he was caught in between the railing and the bed.”

The agency confirmed that its technical support team was participating in an investigation, and added that an autopsy of Mayall’s body would not be performed.

Town Creek, a non-union bituminous operation, employs 32 workers. Twenty were onsite at the time of the incident.

According to federal data, Town Creek produced almost 191,000 tons of bituminous coal last year in 84,992 recorded man-hours. Reed Minerals’ non-fatal days lost rate in 2008 was 2.35 and its operator fatal incidence rate was 0.

To date in 2009, there have been five deaths in the US coal industry, all of which occurred either at surface operations or at surface facilities of underground mines.