KENTUCKY — The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), a division of the U.S. Department of Labor, oversees and enforces safety and health compliance at all U.S. mines. 

The agency tracks deaths in the industry and investigates to determine what steps could have prevented them. The agency tracks both deaths related to mining activity and deaths that happen on mining property but are determined to be unrelated to mining activity.

According to Statista, Kentucky’s coal mining industry employed almost 5,000 people in 2022, with 75% of those working in underground mines.

In 2023, MSHA reported one mining death. On June 9, 2023, a truck driver died when he was struck by an excavator bucket in Morgan County. There were two fatalities in 2022. On March 20, 2022, 33-year-old roof bolter James Brown, died when he was crushed by a roof fall while moving a waterline. On Jan. 11, 2022, 32-year-old Cecil Collett died when a tree fell from a wall next to the mine and hit the cab of the truck he was driving.

From 2013 to 2021, there were 21 mining deaths in Kentucky. The Department of Labor reports 122 mine related deaths in the U.S. for the same period.

The Department of Labor’s records date back to 1900 and reveal a drastic decline in deaths as the number of coal miners has rapidly declined across the country. At its height in 1923, there were 862,536 miners working in the U.S. That year, there were 2,462 deaths.

In 2022, there were 66,172 miners in the U.S., a decline of over 92% in the industry, and 11 deaths.

In its deadliest year, 2,821 miners died in 1910. 

With slight variations from year-to-year, the total number of U.S. miners has been on a steady decline since its peak in 1923.