The following is a statement from Tracy Stumbo, the chief accident investigator of the Office of Mine Safety and Licensing.
 

           

As stated in the mission statement for this agency, our goal is to ensure that all coal miners in the commonwealth have a safe work environment and to foster safe work practices that will ensure each coal miner returns home uninjured.  
    
Unfortunately, even with the efforts of this agency and the mining industry, coal mining accidents and fatalities do occur.  KRS 352.180 requires all serious and fatal accidents to be reported to the Office of Mine Safety and Licensing (OMSL) immediately.   
           
A serious accident is defined as a physical injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes serious and prolonged disfigurement, prolonged impairment of health, or prolonged loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ.        

When a serious or fatal accident is reported to one of the six OMSL districts, a trained accident investigating team is dispatched to the mine site to conduct an investigation.  The investigating team, under the supervision of the chief accident investigator, will gather information about the accident to ensure the safety of employees at the mine is not menaced and to generate a written report of the accident. A representative of OMSL shall review the accident with a company official, the victim and/or victim's family at the completion of the report.  The report shall then be filed in the OMSL Frankfort office for future record of the accident. 

All serious and fatal accident reports filed in the OMSL Frankfort office shall be subject to open records request before being released to the public. 

For questions concerning accident investigation or accident reports, please call me at 606-285-3227.

Thank you,

Tracy Stumbo
Chief Accident Investigator 
 

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