MSHA Final Fatality Report

MINE FATALITY – On February 8, 2021, a miner was fatally injured when he became entangled in a fluted tail pulley while attempting to shovel under an adjacent fluted tail pulley.

Best Practices:

Design, install and maintain area guards with signage and locks in addition to the physical barrier.  Find more information on area guarding at https://www.msha.gov/guarding-slide-presentation-guarding-conveyor-belts-metal-and-nonmetal-mines.


Design and maintain secure guards so miners can perform routine maintenance on belt conveyor systems without contacting moving machine parts.

Do not perform work on a belt conveyor until the power is off, locked out and tagged, and machinery components are blocked against motion.

Never clean pulleys or idlers manually while belt conveyors are operating.

Establish policies and procedures for conducting specific tasks on belt conveyors.

Ensure that people assigned to work on belt conveyors are task trained, understand the associated hazards, and demonstrate safe work procedures before beginning work.

Ensure all new miners receive new miner training and task training.

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