Bulldozer Operator Killed at Coal Mine in Kentucky

A bulldozer operator is dead after an accident at an International Coal Group coal mine in eastern Kentucky.

Office of Mine Safety and Licensing spokesman Jim Carroll said 55-year-old Harold Lee Graham of Campton, Ky. was pushing debris over a 180-foot earthen wall at a mine site in Perry County about 1:15 a.m. o Sept. 19 when the accident occurred. The bulldozer he was operating fell over the wall at the mine in Ary.

State investigators are at the scene. Carroll said the mine will be closed pending completion of the investigation.

Graham is the 20th coal miner killed in the United States this year and the third in Kentucky.

Scott Depot, W.Va.-based ICG controls about 1 billion tons of coal reserves in Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Virgin