Miners were about 10ft into the first cut when the mine roof collapsed and killed Denny East, 35, according to the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training.
The accident occurred at about 12:40pm local time, various media reports stated.
“It was a new face-up and this was the first cut of the first entry” into the 40in coal seam, said the state’s Office of Miner’s Health, Safety and Training deputy director CA Phillips.
The miner had only been on the job for two days, according to the Associated Press, who also noted that a second miner at the scene was able to exit the accident uninjured.
The fatality is the 20th in a US coal mine in 2005, the third in West Virginia this year and the second in West Virginia due to a roof fall, according to MSHA’s preliminary report on the accident.
Kentucky leads the nation with seven fatalities in 2005, followed by Alabama and Pennsylvania with four each. Total West Virginia miner deaths are the lowest in five years with 12 deaths were reported in 2004.
News of the death comes just days after a roof fall accident at Rosebud Mining’s Logansport mine in Pennsylvania, which took the life of 30-year-old continuous miner operator Eric Benjamin Hill the afternoon of December 12.
