The Cucumber mine in McDowell County in southern West Virginia, operated by Brooks Run Mining, was given six violation citations, including several for its roof control plan, according to an Associated Press report.
A roof fall at the mine on January 13 killed James Thomas, 48, and Pete Poindexter, 33.
Also on the list of citations by the Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training that were included in a report by the state’s Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety was “improper maintenance” of the units.
State mine inspector Fred Stinson told the news service on Monday that the mine’s “repeated violations” of the plan could have played a part in the cave-in that took the workers’ lives.
AP cited Stinson as saying that the collapse resulted from cutting too much coal at once on several occasions, especially in an area of geology that was known for weakness. “They had already started to converge on that tender type roof,” he said.
The operation employs 114 people and is one of 66 mines owned by ANR in four states.
The fatal incident was the first and only one in West Virginia’s coal mines this year. There have been four deaths in coal mines so far this year in the United States.
