What a way to start the year...

"PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A coal truck driver was killed Tuesday when his truck backed over a dumping point and kept going down a slope, authorities said.

Roy D. Sturgill, 29, of Isom died around 12:45 a.m. after the accident at Blue Ridge surface mine in eastern Kentucky's Letcher County.

The mine is operated by the Cumberland River Coal Company, a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Arch Coal. Sturgill was employed by Bates Contracting in Whitesburg."
When you leave home to go anywhere, you never really know.

[imported_elp6n]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Spuds</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
When you leave home to go anywhere, you never really know.

</div></div>

Isn't that the truth. No guarantees for any of us.

Very unfortunate news.

[TheBeast]

He was in his hauler at work and backed over the birm. I had a customer in today telling me about it that worked with him.

Had one of my best friends do the same thing last year on an A&G job, he got beat up pretty good and missed about 2 weeks work. He went over and went down about 200' and the hauler flipped.

[LCAS_712]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TheBeast</div><div class="ubbcode-body">He was in his hauler at work and backed over the birm. I had a customer in today telling me about it that worked with him.

Had one of my best friends do the same thing last year on an A&G job, he got beat up pretty good and missed about 2 weeks work. He went over and went down about 200' and the hauler flipped. </div></div>

I thought he was in a hauler. When it said he was in a coal truck I thought "when do coal trucks have a dump point on a strip job?"

We have a truck dump that is built like what you find at a strip mine. Our coal is belted from the old Scotia property on 119 in Ky to Pardee in Va ,before washing and loading into the unit trains. Bates supplies Arch with temps ,when they need people and don't want to pay the benefits, the guy worked for them. Anyway, perhaps that is where the confusion about the truck came from, or perhaps the folks that wrote the story didn't know much about mining.

[TheBeast]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Bates supplies Arch with temps ,when they need people and don't want to pay the benefits, the guy worked for them. </div></div>

The gentleman that was in here and told me about it said it was mostly because the driver was inexperienced and this supports that fully.