 It's never the same. Anytime you take a cut of cold out of your going someplace, man has never been before. Each day you go into the mine, your workplace is changing. No two days is the same. And so you can't let your guard down. You've got to be aware. As safe as coal mines are, they are a safe place to work and yet it's still a dangerous occupation. Last year nearly 70% of the underground coal miners that were killed in coal mines were due to roof and rip fall. That's the highest percentage of underground fatalities that roof and rip has had since we've been keeping records. The percentage of underground fatals climbed due to roof and rip falls near 70%. And we've got to do something to turn that around. We began putting out information on serious accidents that were happening in an effort to get these roof and rip fatalities back down on the downswing. Here's two coal miners, two separate incidents, a miner operator and a roof boulder operator who seemed to be doing everything right. They'd examined their workplace. They were well under supported roof. Others had been in the area and examined the workplace and still they got hurt. It can happen to you. We turned the slider to get the miner in. It kept both sides here. And as I was loading this car, it was just about loaded as he's sitting in here and I'm standing in this area right here. Okay, there's pins in by me all the way through, pins back behind me, pins around here. None of them been cut out, nothing. But standing right here in this area, I'd look back. Everything was going fine. Look back at him about that time when it caught me out of this corner and from what I could see, it came from this way out. Enough to get me on my left side, more or less knocking me down enough that my minimum of my own weight took me into the unbolded area. As it had me down, I could see the car driver with his light on and mine had been knocked and my head had been busted and knocked off. So here I am in the dark and I see his light coming to me. He said, soon as I saw you go down with no light, he said I knew something was wrong. I got off the car and then I ran over to Louie. He was having a hard time breathing. I mean, he couldn't hardly breathe getting, you know, to catch a full breath. As he gets to me, he said, you're all right. All I could get out was, I think so. And I said, I need a breath. I need to get it off of me. The piece that was on me was ever been probably eight foot, eight by five, something like that. So here he is. He tried to lift it enough for me and him together with my right arm called under it, pushed up, so I got a breath of air. After that rock fell on me, I couldn't get it off of him. I felt, I felt bad, you know, I felt like I should have been the one to get the rock off of him, you know, but I couldn't, I couldn't do nothing about it. I had to leave, I had to leave the Louie land there until I had to go get some more help. And when they came back, they started to come up and I told them by this time, I said, just take your time and look around. Well, all the pins were still tight. And after they looked, they said, that is odd. And my left leg, it had broke the smaller bone in the left leg and just a crushing blow to the heel on the left leg. Six ribs broken total and the sternum was fractured. Well, he had his remote station in front of him, holding his remote station, and when the rock fell, sort of assuming it hit him, struck him on the head, came down, hit the remote station and kind of made him pitch forward. First thing I asked him was, you wouldn't have them under pins? Well, he said no. He said I was, he said I didn't look up. He said I knew it wasn't past the last bolt. And he said it just all of a sudden come in and got him. I didn't think the breathe like that would fall, you know, after it has been pinned up. But after I've seen that it can fall out in between the pins and everything, it makes me, you know, it makes me kind of scared a little bit. It can happen to you. The accident happened. It occurred about 4.30 in the morning. I was waiting on my buddy to come back from dinner. They just got through blowing a crosscut through, went around to blow another one through. Me and my manager topped for a little bit. My buddy came back from dinner. I bolted the corner to the left. We moved the roof bolt or imposition in the crosscut. Start our first roll, the bolt to blow through. We bolted our wing bolts or center bolts. So I moved my boom over. I set it down, went back there, changed a bit. There's a lot of that top. It's limestone after a foot or two. And went back there to get a roof bolt and a plate. And whenever it fell, it pushed me towards the boulder. And the blunt of the impact of the rock hit my lower back. And whenever it hit my lower back, that's what crushed the pelvis on each side, broke my tailbone and messed up four vertebrae, the wings that hold the muscle. If it would have came directly on top of me, it'd have killed me. And when you start to react, it's already on top of you. I mean, there's no way you can get out of the way. I think I was kind of stunned. I never did lose consciousness, no. All during this here. And I never felt any pain till it moved me. I knew I was scared. I knew I was hurt bad. I mean, he was in a lot of pain, especially when he moved his leg with that ankle or his foot actually just about turned all the way back around the other way. And like I say, they got him stabilized, got him on the backboard and got him on the man trip and took him out. All the pre-shift examinations had shown that everything was okay as far as the roof conditions go in the area that they were working in. As a matter of fact, from what I was told from Gary, that he and the mine manager had just been in that area just a short while before that and carried on a conversation concerning the conditions of the mine and the mine roof and different things that were going on in the area. After this happened, we went to each shift, we went to each crew and re-emphasized the importance of checking areas. I've thought about it and I've thought about it and I've laid in bed and thought about it. I laid in the hospital and thought about it. I think I did everything that I could with the experience and the knowledge that I had in the mining industry. And if I'd go back into the mines today and I'd seen the same thing, I would probably say it's okay. It can happen to you. I think no matter what job you do in the mine, especially if it involves in the face area and roof control, I think you've got to be extra cautious at all times. And your buddy's got to look out for you and you've got to look out for your buddy. Sometimes there's some loose slate up there or something that you might not be able to see, but your buddy can see it from his standpoint. It's important to communicate and especially about roof hazards. You have to be able to communicate those things to each other and let them know what the top's like and let them know what kind of conditions you've got. And certainly if you've got conditions that need to be corrected, correct those. I see more and more where IMFSA is taking education and training role, I think, to a higher level. Trying to talk with the miners, to try to get them to be aware, work safely, and to always follow the roof control plan, to know the roof control plan, to provide them with some information to impact them. You know, like the Preventive Roof Rib Outreach Program. Prop was one step in trying to reach out to miners. When we go underground and give safety talks, we have these best practices cards. Our inspectors take those out and provide those. And these are things that have been offered by coal miners themselves. I mean, if you want to know how a roof-bowling machine operates, talk to that roof-bowler operator that operates with it every day. You want to know how the roof's acting? You go talk to your roof-bowler operator. They're our best source. We've got to make an impact, no matter how we can do it. I mean, if it's training, if it's talking more to the miners, if it's getting to the miners themselves or their families, we've got to make an impact. And roof and rib fatalities is one thing, but we've got to impact also miners that are being injured. Those serious injuries and accidents that are occurring are potential fatalities. Being in a serious injury like this and almost losing your life, I look back at it now and I think I would be a lot more cautious in the mines and where I walk and when I walk, I look. When I go back to work, I want to try to find a little bit further place to be that I can still see what's going on and still do my job without exposing myself to any more than I've got to. To all the miner operators, at least try to stay at least two bolts, maybe two or three bolts behind the last row of bolts. Mine to mine, you could be a roof-bowler in one mine for 10 years and move 30 miles away. The strata conditions is different. The top conditions is different. There's an old verbiage that's out there that was handed down from generation to generation as coal miners that bad top will hurt you and good top will kill you. And the message brought forth there is that the bad top you're always looking at, you're always checking, you're double checking. And if you get in a good top, a lot of times you let your guard down. You need to make your own examination, scale down any loose top that you see, any fractures in the roof, make sure that you support those properly. If you've got different conditions, if you've got heads in the top, or if your top starts getting a little grummy, pay more attention to it. It just pays to watch everything. The ribs in the area, a lot of times they'll be loose. We always teach them to pry those down as well. You can never be too careful in a coal miner. We want coal miners to be able to go to their job, work safely at their job. We want to be able to go home to their families. It can happen to you. Don't think it can. Some IMSA best practices include make thorough examinations of your work area, correct hazardous conditions, communicate to co-workers about roof conditions, know and follow your roof control plan, stay at least two roof bolts back from unsupported roof, always be aware of your surroundings and watch for changing conditions. And do not go under unsupported roof. Remember, you cannot outrun a roof bolt. For more information, contact your local IMSA office or visit us at our web page at www.msha.gov.