One dead, One Missing In Separate West Virgina Coal Accidents

Written by Associated Press (96) on Friday, November 30, 2012 09:14 PM. Posted in Across The Nation

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - One worker is dead and another is missing after separate accidents at two coal facilities in West Virginia. An electrician was killed when he was caught between a scoop and a continuous mining machine Friday morning at the Pocahontas Mine A White Buck Portal in Greenbrier County.

Alpha Natural Resources says the worker was 27-year-old Steven O'Dell of Mount Nebo. He is the state's sixth mining fatality this year. In the other accident, rescuers were still searching for a bulldozer operator missing after an embankment around a coal slurry pond gave way. Two engineers who also fell in the water were rescued. That accident happened at the Nolans Run impoundment of Consol Energy's Robinson Run mine in Harrison County.