Risk Assessment of Safety Violations for Coal Mines

Abstract

This article presents an application of a risk assessment approach in characterising the risks associated with safety violations in underground bituminous mines in Pennsylvania using the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) citation database. The MSHA database on citations provides an opportunity to assess risks in mines through scrutiny of violations of mandatory safety standards. In this study, quantitative risk assessment is performed, which allows determination of the frequency of occurrence of safety violations (through associated citations) as well as the consequences of them in terms of penalty assessments. Focus is on establishing risk matrices on citation experiences of mines, which can give early indication of emerging potentially serious problems. The resulting frequency, consequence and risk rankings present valuable tools for prioritising resource allocations, determining control strategies, and could potentially contribute to more proactive prevention of incidents and injuries. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Coal Mines; Pennsylvania; Risk Assessment; Safety; Standard Citations

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1748-0930

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2010 Taylor & Francis, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2010

Link to Full Text

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