MSHA TO EXPAND RULES TO LIVE BY PROGRAM

MSHA is preparing to expand into the third phase of its Rules to Live By (RTLB) fatality and catastrophe prevention program. A rollout for stakeholders is set for Jan. 31.

Sharpe’s Point: On Mine Safety has learned that five standards and a regulation will be added to the 13 standards now being given special enforcement attention under RTLB I in the Metal/Non-Metal (M/NM) sector. The regulation involves new task training under Part 46.7(a). The standards are 56.15020, life jackets and belts; 56.3130, wall, bank and slope stability; 56.3200, correction of hazardous conditions; and 56.14100(b)/57.14100(b), timely correction of safety defects.

Originally, 11 standards were targeted under RTLB I for special attention in Coal. However, nine others that MSHA said have been associated with catastrophic accidents were added in an expansion dubbed RTLB II some eight months after the original launch. It is not clear if the latest expansion will involve new Coal standards, but MSHA has said it would update RTLB II when its investigation of the Upper Big Branch-South Mine tragedy ended. MSHA issued its report of the accident in December.

The RTLB program aims to reduce fatalities and catastrophes by targeting standards that have been most commonly cited in connection with fatal and catastrophic accident investigations during this century. MSHA developed an instructional program on the initiative for its inspectors and, in what might have been an unprecedented move, it shared those instructional materials with the regulated community. Operators will have to wait and see if the Agency will engage them in a similar outreach effort this time around. At the time, MSHA said alleged violations of RTLB standards could come with enhanced penalties and instructed its inspectors to evaluate gravity and negligence carefully.

Citations and orders evaluated at the highest categories of gravity and negligence could lead to special assessments. Specially assessed enforcement paper accrues higher penalty points than tickets assessed by the regular method. Higher penalty points mean bigger fines.

Enforcement data indicate MSHA was not bluffing. MSHA launched the enforcement phase of RTLB on March 15, 2010, a date that falls nearly halfway through fiscal year (FY) 2010. In that year, the number of alleged violations subject to special assessment in M/NM jumped nearly four-fold from FY 2009, increasing to 1,494 from 431. Special assessments followed accordingly: $13.6 million in FY 2010 compared to $5.7 million in FY 2009. A similar story unfolded in Coal. A total of 1,955 alleged violations were specially assessed in FY 2010, compared to 518 the year before, with fines climbing to $29.2 million from $10.3 million. However, fines tapered off in FY 2011.

The New Priority Standards

56/57.14100(b) are identical standards that require correction in a timely manner of defects on equipment, machinery and tools that affect safety. Of the latest priority rules, 14110(b) was the one of the most commonly cited standards from Jan. 1, 2011 through Jan. 26 of this year. Specifically, it was the most cited standard at surface metal operations, the second most at surface stone and nonmetal operations and the fourth highest at sand & gravel mines. Underground, it ranked first at stone mines, second at metal operations and fifth at non-metal mines.

Part 46.7(a) lists training requirements that must be provided to miners before they are assigned to a new task for which they have had no previous experience. They are: health and safety aspects of the new task, including safe work procedures, and information on any chemical hazards, associated personal protective equipment needs and the contents of the mine’s hazard communication program.

Standard 56.15020 requires miners to wear life jackets or belts where a danger exists of falling into water. 56.3130 requires proper mining methods to be used to maintain wall, bank and slope stability where persons work or travel. 56.3200, like 3130, is a ground control standard that requires hazardous ground conditions to be corrected before work or travel is allowed in the affected area.