Support Activities for Metal Mining

NarrativeAt approximately 3:10 p.m. on June 21, 2010, an employee was working at a remote drill site located in the hills east of the main road at approximately milepost 74 of the Elliot highway and employed by a sub-contractor engaged in vertical e xploratory mineral drilling with an Explorer 1500 all terrain drill rig. The dri llers were attempting to add two additional 10-ft by 4-in. sections of drill pip e to the drill head. The drill head had been disconnected from the down hole pip e and a 10-ft by 4-in. section of drill pipe weighting approximately 170-lbs was attached to the drill head and laid out on the ground at a slight downhill angl e. The employee then picked up the male end of the rotating drill pipe and held it at approximately hip level, while a coworker attempted to attach a second 10- ft length of pipe to the first section of pipe the employee was holding. The cow orker heard the employee, who had his back to the drill rig yell as his clothing had became tangled in the rotating pipe he was holding. The employee was entang led and knocked to the ground by the rotating drill pipe before the coworker cou ld get to the drill rig controls, approximately 20 feet away, and stop the rotat ion, as the drill head had been set in the rotating position at approximately 11 to 12 rpms to facilitate threading of the pipe sections. The coworker then retu rned to the employee and untangled him from the drill pipe. The coworker noticed that the employee was unresponsive with a head injury, unequal pupils and labor ed, gurgling breathing. The coworker immediately got on the radio to request hel p. Other coworkers arrived within minutes to provide first aid; they made a stre tcher from a ladder and clothing, carefully rolled the employee onto the stretch er while supporting his head and placed him into the bed of a pickup truck. The employee was transported to a store located at milepost 66 of the Elliot highway approximately 15 minutes away. During that time, the employee lost his pulse an d cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, was initiated. At the North Country Mercan tile at mile 66 of the Elliot Highway, they were met by another subcontractor wh o had heard of the accident over the radio and responded with a suburban with th e back seats removed for emergency response situations. An Automated External De fibrillator, AED, was placed on the employee and a "no shock advised, continue C PR" message was given. CPR was continued while enroute to milepost 32 of the Ell iot highway, Fairbanks North Star Borough boundary, where they were met by Stees e Volunteer Fire and rescue personnel. At that time, the employee was pronounced dead and was transported to the Fox Weight scales, where the employee was trans ferred to funeral home personnel for transport to Chapel of the Chimes funeral h ome in Fairbanks.