PINEVILLE, W.Va. – One coal miner was killed and a second was seriously injured Monday in what has become the deadliest year in the nation's mines in a decade.
The men were preparing to work on a mine shuttle car at about 7 a.m. when the vehicle moved unexpectedly and struck them, said Caryn Gresham, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training.
The injured man suffered shoulder and chest injuries and was taken to a hospital in Charleston, where his condition was not known.
The cause of the accident, at Bluestone Coal's Double Bonus No. 65 Mine on Pinnacle Creek in southern West Virginia, was not determined. State and federal inspectors were sent to the mine.
Representatives of Bluestone Coal did not answer calls seeking comment.
The fatality brings West Virginia's mining-related death toll this year to 22, including the 12 men killed in the Sago Mine accident on Jan. 2.
Nationally, 43 miners have died this year, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. That is the industry's highest since 1995, when 47 miners were killed, according to MSHA.
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