MSHA Issued 121,646 Orders and Citations Last Year
Preliminary data for calender year 2014 show 11 fatalities in 2014 involved mine contractors, up significantly from four contractor deaths the previous year, and the highest increase was in the metal and nonmetal sector.
Preliminary statistics for calendar year 2014 from the Mine Safety and Health Administration on April 14 showed fatalities rose slightly from 42 to 44 but the overall operator-reported injury rate improved from the prior year to an historic low. Of those 44 deaths, 16 occurred at coal mines and 28 at metal and nonmetal mines and facilities -- with 16 being the lowest number ever recorded in a year for the coal sector.
The preliminary 2014 fatal injury rate was lower than in 2013, at 0.0150 fatal injuries per 200,000 hours worked and the second lowest fatal rate recorded in mining history. The overall operator-reported injury rate of 3.10 per 200,000 hours was a new record low, below the 2013 rate of 3.11.
Eleven fatalities in 2014 involved mine contractors, up significantly from four contractor deaths the previous year, and the highest increase was in the metal and nonmetal sector.
MSHA reported 121,646 citations and orders were issued in 2014, up slightly from 118,279 in 2013. "The increase is related to enhanced enforcement efforts aimed at addressing the increase in fatalities in the metal and nonmetal sector where citations and orders increased in 2014 by 7 percent," according to MSHA, which reported it has implemented several actions to improve compliance, including special impact inspections targeting troubled mines, the revised Pattern of Violations enforcement program to rein in chronic violators, and the Rules to Live By initiative designed to prevent the most common types of mining deaths.