Hmmm...perhaps this fatal accident could have been avoided if the locomotive operators and miners had access to the excellent underground communications and tracking technologies of the ActiveMine system.
Posted on Thu, Jun. 18, 2009
Feds blame lack of rules for fatal mining accident
The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Federal investigators say a lack of policies and procedures for operating underground locomotives contributed to a fatal accident at a Consol Energy operation in West Virginia last October.
A Mine Safety and Health Administration report issued Thursday says the McElroy Mine didn't require locomotive operators to tell each other where they were stopping. Nor were miners barred from working between locomotives and rail cars unless they knew the location of any trailing locomotive.
Fifty-eight-year-old Victor Goudy was pinned between a locomotive and a rail car that were struck by a second locomotive in October 2008.
Canonsburg, Pa.-based Consol did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Consol operates mines in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Utah.
Source: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/a...