35 year old truck driver dies in accident at Eastern Kentucky surface mine
A 35-year-old Illinois man died after being struck by an excavator bucket at a Morgan County surface coal mine earlier this month.
On June 9, a contractor crew was using an excavator to help unload a 10,000-gallon fuel tank from a trailer “when the excavator bucket suddenly moved,” said a preliminary report of the accident from the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
John T. Hilliard, a contract truck driver, was working on the rigging for the tank when he was struck by the excavator bucket and died, the report said. Hilliard was working for JD’s Custom Transport, Inc., a trucking company based in Morris, Illinois.
The accident took place at a mine near West Liberty called Advanced Restoration Technologies-1, owned by NEV LLC. Hilliard was declared dead at the scene, said Casey Helton, the Morgan County coroner.
One employee of the mine and three contractor employees were present at the time of the accident, the report said.
It was the second fatal accident to occur at a Kentucky mine site this year, the MSHA site showed. A 38-year-old died at a Pike County mine in March. Two mine-related deaths occurred in the state in 2022.
This story was originally published June 20, 2023 at 3:03 PM.