What to know about Knox County mine accident that injured six

Six workers at a Sunrise Coal facility in Knox County were injured Friday, law enforcement officials said, after an accident in an underground mine in Bruceville, Indiana.

Knox County Central Dispatch received a call regarding an incident at the Sunrise Coal mine along a rural stretch of North P. Perry Road just before 1 a.m. Responding Knox County Sheriff's deputies located six injured workers, all of whom were later hospitalized, according to a news release.

"The accident appears to have been a collision involving the mine ride," the KCSO stated. "The Mine Safety and Health Administration is investigating this accident. The injured worker’s names will not be released until all family notifications have been made."

Two of the injured workers were taken by helicopter to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, officials said. Ambulances transported the four others to Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, Indiana. Their condition was not immediately known.

The director of government affairs for Hallador Energy Company, Sunrise Coal LLC's parent company, could not immediately be reached by phone on Friday.

Hallador Energy's website says its mining operations are "focused on safely and efficiently mining high-quality bituminous coal from the Illinois Basin." adding that Sunrise Coal's room-and-pillar mines employ one of the "safest" designs on the market.

Sunrise Coal LLC, Indiana's second-largest coal producer, operates several facilities in and around Oaktown, Indiana, and Bruceville, including mines. Fewer than 1,100 people live in the two towns, which are separated north-to-south by about 9 miles as the crow flies.

In 2022, a 35-year-old mining machine operator and U.S. Marine Corps. veteran died at the Sunrise Coal-operated Oaktown Fuels Mine No. 1, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration.

In a preliminary accident report, the agency wrote that Brian Rodriguez died on Jan. 7, 2022, inside the mine after he became pinned between a "coal rib" and the "continuous mining machine" he had operated for four years.

Rodriguez served two tours in Iraq as a U.S. Marine and served as a volunteer fire fighter in Oaktown.

On a webpage dedicated to Sunrise Coal's safety record, the company wrote that "education" and "personal responsibility" form the cornerstone of its compliance policies.

"We place a top priority on training, to ensure our miners take personal responsibility for safety, compliance and production," the website states.

Sunrise Coal officials have touted above-average safety rankings across various performance metrics, such as the severity of reported worker injuries, the rate of citations issued by mining authorities and the number of violations logged in monthly mine safety reports.

Terre Haute-based Hallador Energy announced in February that it would lay off about 110 workers – mostly Sunrise Coal employees – as the company significantly curtailed investments into its mining subsidiary.

In a February note to investors, Hallador Energy officials wrote that they would work to improve "cost structure" across Sunrise Coal by amping up how often its underground equipment units worked: the units would now run seven days per week, as opposed to the previous five-and-a-half days per week.

The restructuring effort would see Hallador Energy reduce Sunrise Coal production and capital investment "by approximately $10 million" in 2024, the letter states. The company announced that it would idle production at its Freelandville and Prosperity mines.

Houston Harwood can be contacted at [email protected].