Three Construction Workers Die at Indiana Coal Mine

by via Mike Hall, AFL-CIO

Sat, Aug 11, 2007 9:24AM

Saturday, August 11, 2007 : Three coal mine construction workers were killed today at an Indiana mine while working on a new 600-foot vertical airshaft, according to news reports. The three deaths came as hope was fading for the six Utah miners trapped 1,500 feet underground since a mine collapse early Monday.

The latest incident occurred at a mine operated by Gibson County Coal near Princeton, Ind. The Princeton Daily Clarion reports the three were employed by an Evansville construction company.

The paper says local police say the three died in a basket used to transport people up and down the air shaft, but could not say whether they fell. Authorities did not believe there had been a cave-in or an explosion. They also didn’t believe anyone else was trapped or injured. The air shaft construction site is several miles from the Gibson Mine mine site itself.

According to Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) records, the last fatality at the mine, owned by Alliance Resource Partners of Tulsa, Okla., was in November 2001. The deaths today bring to 14 the number of coal miner killed this year.

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For more information: http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/08/10/three-co...

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