Update: Investigators Suspect West Virginia Mine Electrician Cut Live Cable

May 20, 2008

Federal investigators believe a West Virginia miner was electrocuted last week when he cut a live cable.

A preliminary Mine Safety and Health Administration report released May 19 says 24-year-old Nathan Dove was repairing an electric shuttle car used to transport coal underground when the accident occurred at 8:45 p.m. on May 16. He died 45 minutes later.

The accident occurred at Massey Energy Co.’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine in southern West Virginia, scene of a high-profile fire that killed two miners in January 2006.

A spokesman for the Richmond, Virginia, company did not immediately return a call May 19. Massey runs mines in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.

Dove is the second West Virginia coal miner to die at work this year and the ninth nationally.