2023 In The US Was The Deadliest Year In A Decade -- For Accidental Workplace Deaths, In Mining

Regular readers will recall that even four decades on, I follow miners' workplace conditions and safety laspes rather closely. And in that regard, the Tangerine's roll-back/easing of various OSHA safety regulations (largely from coal mining lobby efforts) has now appeared in the annual data, with a vengeance. [There have been no workplace safety roll-backs under Mr. Biden, to be clear.]

With more granularity, Texas (no surprise) saw the most fatal accidents in 2023, with five. Georgia had four and West Virginia had three. Eight states had two fatal accidents last year, including California, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Tennessee. [None in Colorado, and that says something -- as well.]

Of last year’s 40 mining fatalities -- January and August were the deadliest months, with six fatal accidents, each. Five miners died in mining accidents in March, and four died in June. Each month last year had at least one mining fatality. This is not the way the trendlines should be headed -- with only 2014 eclipsing 2023 (there were 46 in 2014):

. . .The mining industry had its deadliest year in a decade in 2023, as 40 miners died in accidents across the U.S. . . .

The Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) provides details about the 40 fatalities in reports on its website, attributing the accidents to nine general causes. MSHA characterized 16 of last year’s fatalities as involving machinery, with 10 classified as powered haulage accidents. Combined, machinery and powered haulage accounted for 65 percent of mine fatalities in 2023.

The other fatalities were classified in seven different ways. Three 2023 fatalities were classified as electrical accidents, with another three categorized as slip or fall of person. The other fatal accident causes were drowning (2); fall of roof or back (2); falling, rolling or sliding rock or material of any kind (2); fall of face, rib side or highwall (1); and handling material (1).

Additionally, MSHA published details about the nature of the material mined at each site where fatal accidents occurred. Thirty-one of the 40 fatalities occurred at sites fitting MSHA’s description of a metal/nonmetal mining operation. The other nine fatal accidents happened at coal mines.

Of the 31 metal/nonmetal operations involved, seven occurred at “crushed broken limestone” operations and six happened at construction sand and gravel operations. The nature of the material at the other sites involved was kaolin and ball clay (3); “crushed broken sandstone” (2); “crushed broken stone” (2); dimension stone (2); gold ore (2); cement (1); “crushed broken traprock” (1); dimension limestone (1); lime (1); platinum group ore (1); “sand common” (1); and silver ore (1). . . .

I cannot fathom how the richest nation on Earth cannot see it owes its workers in hazardous industries the best in protections, possible -- the industry is vastly profitable, afterall. Damn -- vote for sensible federal oversight, come November. [Hint: that is not Tangerine's mantra.]

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