SENTINELS OF SAFETY AWARDS HONORS 19
Nineteen total operations and facilities, a third of them in coal, have taken home Sentinels of Safety awards for a commitment to injury-free work over the 2015 calendar year. Winning honors in the underground coal division were King II, operated by GCC Energy, with 242,309 injury-free hours, and Blue Diamond Coal’s No. 88 mine with 89,556 hours without injury. In surface coal, the distinction went to Luminant Mining’s Three Oaks with 714,065 injury-free hours and Windex Energy’s Wolf Den Run operation with an injury-free rate of 27,552 hours. American Coal’s New Era was a winner in the coal processing facility division, alongside Consol of Kentucky’s Miller Creek Prep No. 1. The plants had 224,235 and 26,007 injury-free hours worked, respectively. The Sentinels of Safety awards were handed out during a luncheon and ceremony September 27 at MINExpo International 2016 in Las Vegas.
Arch Coal Earn NIOSH Awards
During the Sentinels of Safety Awards ceremony on September 27, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) also recognized Arch Coal with one of its Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Awards. Earning the 2016 Coal Award for its Stockpile Safety System was Arch Coal’s Leer mine in West Virginia. The company developed its system to provide the dozer operator and the plant operator with video of dozer location on the stockpile in relation to the feeders. Operators can also use the system to confirm via video that coal is being pulled from the surface of the pile to indicate there are not any voids. “This system represents a significant advance to enhance dozer operator awareness and help eliminate future stockpile dozer incidents,” NIOSH said.
NIOSH established the Mine Safety and Health technology Innovations Awards to recognize those making an extraordinary effort, above and beyond mandatory requirements, to apply technologies that will improve worker safety and health.
