Three men riding in a large bucket plunged 500 feet to their deaths in an airshaft being built at a coal mine. The sinking bucket used in the air shaft can hold six to 10 people and is about 6 feet high. A worker said the chain holding the bucket is inspected daily.The open-top bucket was somehow ajar inside the shaft as it was descending and the three men fell to the bottom. At the start of a shift, the bucket takes people down to the work area at the bottom of the shaft. The distance is comparable to a 40-story building. No other employees were injured.
The airshaft was being built as part of an expansion at the coal mine, which began production in July 2000. The company is building the 550-foot vertical ventilation shaft at the Gibson County Coal mine, about 30 miles north of Evansville. The Gibson mine is one of seven underground mines in Indiana and was the state's second-largest coal producer.
The Indiana Department of Labor's Bureau of Mines has opened an investigation into the accident and the agency's top officials were at the site.
This is considered a construction site at a coal mine facility not a coal mining accident.
The mine's owner is already claiming not to be responsible.
The Bureau of Mines said Gibson County Coal had 280 employees last year and accounted for 68 of 103 mine accidents in the state last year.
Its last fatality was in November 2001, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. A miner died after being pinned by equipment and operator error was cited as the cause.
Last year the company was cited for 353 safety violations - 127 of which were deemed as serious or significant which can endanger mine workers.
So far this year, the mine has faced 292 citations, 84 of which were considered serious and significant.
Undergrounds mines in Indiana are inspected quarterly by, a labor department deputy commissioner and the Bureau of Mines' only employee.
Indiana had no mine fatalities in 2005 and 2006.
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