Maintainer killed by relief valve while jacking shovel

March 20, 2019 Mining Editor

The US Mine Safety and Health Administration have released a report into a fatal mine accident where a maintainer was killed by a relief valve while jacking a shovel at a New Mexico mine on 6th March. Tim Rivers, 35, was a field service technician based with Joy Global DBA Komatsu Mining Corp in Arizona. He was a contract miner with 35 weeks of mine experience.

MSHA says in a preliminary report that “The miner was injured when he was struck by a relief valve ejected from a 500-ton hydraulic jack”

The hydraulic jack was being engaged to make contact with the frame of a P&H 4100A shovel when the relief valve was ejected, striking the maintainer in the abdomen making a deep laceration. The work was being conducted as part of a shovel undercarriage rebuild.

More to come…

Image: Not actual incident – Stock Image Only

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