Reducing mobile equipment, belt conveyor incidents: MSHA announces public meetings

Arlington, VA — The Mine Safety and Health Administration has scheduled six public stakeholder meetings and a webinar on a Request for Information on technologies that may help reduce incidents involving mobile equipment at surface mines, as well as belt conveyors at surface and underground mines.

Announced in a notice published in the July 25 Federal Register, the meetings are scheduled for 9 a.m. local time in the following cities:

• Birmingham, AL, on Aug. 7
• Dallas on Aug. 9
• Reno, NV, on Aug. 21
• Beckley, WV, on Sept. 11
• Albany, NY, on Sept. 20
• Arlington, VA (MSHA headquarters), on Sept. 25

The webinar is scheduled for 11 a.m. Eastern on Aug. 16.

According to MSHA, almost 40 percent of the 28 mining fatalities that occurred in 2017 involved mobile equipment, including bulldozers, front-end loaders and trucks. The agency has reported 61 such fatal injuries among miners since 2007, and found that inadequate or lack of seat belt use was a contributing factor in many cases.

In addition, MSHA found that, since 2007, 13 of the 17 fatalities involving belt conveyors used for transporting materials were related to entanglement hazards.

MSHA published the RFI in the June 26 Federal Register. Comments are due Dec. 24.