They continued working until 10:50 p.m., when they backed out of the pit to fuel their bulldozers and eat lunch. By 5:15 p.m., Thurman Watts was operating the Caterpillar D-9T bulldozer and Dotson was operating the Caterpillar D-11R bulldozer. Denver Calhoun, Second Shift Foreman, assigned them to work in the Winifrede Ryder Pit pushing overburden over the highwall to expose the coal seam. On Thursday, December 28, 2017, Thurman Watts and Larry Dotson, Bulldozer Operators, arrived for work on the second shift which started at 5:00 p.m. The non-fatal days lost (NFDL) injury incidence rate for the mine operator in 2016 was 0, compared to a national NFDL rate of 0.74 for mines of this type. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) completed a regular (E01) safety and health inspection on July 21, 2017. The principal officers for Black Jewell, LLC were: At the time of the accident, this mine was in the process of being reopened by a new operator and had not resumed coal production. The bulldozers assist with both the production process and reclamation process. The coal is mined from two pits, identified as the Winifrede Ryder, and the Chilton Coal Seams, with front end loaders, haul trucks, and bulldozers. The mine operates two 10-hour production shifts per day, six days per week. The S-7 Surface Mine, operated by Black Jewell, LLC produces bituminous coal and employs 22 people. The spoil slipped down the highwall face under the bulldozer, causing it to go over the highwall. Because of this, the bulldozer was not being operated a safe distance from the edge. The bulldozer operated by Thurman Watts traveled onto an area of unstable spoil on the top of the highwall. The fatal accident occurred because safe work practices were not followed. At the time of the accident, Thurman Watts was removing overburden from a coal seam. The bulldozer dropped approximately 100 feet and continued down the spoil bank, coming to rest approximately 400 feet from the top of the highwall. Once again we thank Gary for sharing these photos with us here on the Digger Man Blog.On Friday, December 29, 2017, at approximately 12:57 a.m., Thurman Watts, a 34-year-old bulldozer operator with 10 years of mining experience, was fatally injured when the Caterpillar D-9T bulldozer he was operating traveled over a highwall. The Feeder Breakers at Yallourn have been purpose built to a design developed in the Yallourn Mine and have been designed to deliver up to 3,000 tonnes per hour onto the conveyor belt system. In this last shot take a look at the tall stop sign on top of the feeder breaker hopper- that is placed high so the operator can see it, but apparently on occasions they do still run into it! The technique has provided a less capital intensive mining method and ensures 100 per cent coal supply reliability. RTL developed this innovative technique which saw the replacement of traditional bucket wheel excavators with these Cat D11R Carry Dozers pushing to the feeders. This GPS guidance is needed because the operators cannot see anything in front of the blade as it is so big! The material is pushed into giant feeder breakers which then feed the coal onto a face conveyor system. The dozers are also fitted with GPS guidance and on board survey capability which is downloaded from a central computer server. Each machine is fitted with a custom made 94 cubic yard blade which are believed to be the largest coal blades ever built by Caterpillar, in fact they are the largest coal blades in operation anywhere in the world.Īt 3.63m high the special purpose blade is capable of moving 70 tonnes of brown coal per push. Gary tells us that there are 4 of these giant Cat dozers at work on the Roche Thiess Linfox (RTL) operation at the Yallourn Coal Mine site in the Latrobe Valley.
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