Date of Graduation

2002

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

Committee Chair

Lloyd M. English

Abstract

The cause and number of coal mining fatal accidents has been recorded since state mine inspection offices began in the mid 1870’s. With the advent of the United States Bureau of Mines, coal mine fatalities were analyzed in various ways. This study looks at the data from a novel direction: the relationship between fatality incidence rates and how long a mine has been active. Data from 1991 to 2000 was extracted from both the MSHA fatality reports and the MSHA Address/Employment database. The binomial proportion statistical test was used to determine when deaths exceeded or fell below the expected number of deaths based on the proportion of mine workers for various years of active life. To obtain reliable statistical results, there must be a minimum number of data point for both variables. For the current study the variables are the number of fatalities and the number of mine employees in a single year. There were insufficient data for assess fatalities at independent preparation plants and surface mine, so only underground coal mining fatalities were analyzed. Results show that during the second year of mine life there was a 30% increase in the number of fatalities when compared to what was expected based on the number of employees alone. Among fatality types, ground control fatalities were more likely to occur during the first two years the mine is open and producing coal. Other analysis indicated that small mines do not experience an increase of fatal injuries, but in reality had less fatalities than was expected based on the proportion of miners that work in small mines. Mines in southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia coal basin have proportionally more fatal accidents in the first few years of mining then the surrounding area. Because of insufficient number of data points, other areas of the United States could not be evaluated. For the majority of the data, fatal accidents occurred in a proportion equal to the average number of employees during the ten year span of data.

Download

Share

COinS