One Miner Killed in Pa. Accident
One miner was killed but five co-workers escaped injury in what may have been an explosion Monday at the R&D Coal Co. mine in Eastern Pennsylvania.
Six miners were about 2,300 feet inside the anthracite coal mine near Joliett, Pa., in Schylkill County when the accident happened shortly before noon, WHTM-TV, Harrisburg, Pa., reported.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said the victim, Dale Reightler, 42, had 20 years of mining experience.
The cause of the accident — or whether there actually was an explosion — was being investigated by state and federal mine officials, the report said.
Four miners were injured in the same mine in 2004, but investigators found no evidence of a methane explosion and work resumed about two weeks later.
The mine was last inspected on Aug. 22.