Stay Calm and Stay in the Cab! 

Many people are continuously risking their lives for the comfort of society and society does not even know of them. It is such a pity that society appreciates more those people who entertain them than those who gives them comfort in their homes.

Coal miners are a different breed. Hard working and they keep the lights on. Show some respect!

God bless and protect these operators in this dangerous but vital industry.They all deserve our gratitude.

I'm so glad your ok. Everytime I say my prayers, I pray for everyone who works in dangerous jobs. Thank you guys every one for your work for our comfort.

I think this is one great company to input so many safety features. My company has one first aid kit & 50% of the meds are outdated.

Amazing how fast a Company will invest in safety equipment when it comes close to a fatality. Up until then it's business as usual.

Just as long as you can go home safe at the end of the day you know you're working for a company who cares about your safety. Great place to work.

I have been in a similar situation - down in a feeder. Those people that made wisearse comments really have no idea what they are talking about. Just goes to show, doesn't it. It's a sure cure for constipation!

WOW !!! this is the most amazing story of human survival I have ever heard...it actually made me cry ,a whole 1 hour and 45 min burried in a reinforced bulldozer cab ??? my heart goes to this American Hero .

As a Safety Professional I think that you and your bosses deserve a pat on the back and this ones coming from Canada boys. The corrective action you put in place seemed to address several different problems from one accident so feel proud that you team are doing things right. Well done gentlemen well done.

Tremendously moving human story. I'm so glad the fellow made it. Kudos to his friends and helpers.

That's a lot of creative thinking. Nice to see that much energy going into protecting their employees in what looks like a dangerous and not too pleasant environment.

While your trapped in the dozer you can update your resume for the new job you will need to find.

Having worked in open pit & underground hard rock mines I will flatly state that coal miners of any type have steel balls as theirs is a really dangerous job. Respect these people!

RU-vid Recommended this video after 13 years what a coincidence.....?

got to admit that guy was calm as can be. I honestly do not know how id react if I were in that situation. course if you think about it, spazzing out wont help and will eliminate your air that much faster.

Glad he survived. He definitely had an Angel watching over him that day.

Great points about following established safety procedures. What's sad is that it takes a fatality or a near fatality before these kinds of safety procedures are put into place.

It's great this worker is alive to tell his story.

the reason for track type dozers is for the simple fact that most of the time you have to cut a road up a steep grade to get on top of the pile, also because the pile gets up VERY high so the tracks is unlikely to turn over if you slide or the pile breaks over with you.. which i might add is a VERY common thing to happen.. tires just wont pull out of the tight spots that tracks will..

God bless all of you guys. Forward thinking is best.

Joe, they utilize this method at coal fired plants because it is the only efficient and cost effective method for moving such a large amount of coal continuously without interruption. In my area of the country the seasons vary from monsoon rains to below freezing temperatures both of which would foul up the equipment that you prefer and maintenance costs would skyrocket due to abrasion. The plant that I work at burns 1000 tons of coal an hour, 24/7 including weekends and holidays.

THANK GOD HE WAS OK AND GOOD CO WORKER'S HELPED HIM OUT THAT'S RIGHT THEN A GOOD LAUGH

Unbeleivable. His gaurdian angel was watching out for him.

Interesting video.... It's good to see these companies working towards positive outcomes.... Every day is a learning day...

The operator kept his cool, he is no dummy So happy he got to go home to his family Rob From Canada

@westkan It's not about being an idiot. The coal is dumped from above into a "feeder" that drops it through a grate onto a conveyor belt. Especially in the wintertime the coal can stick together and form an arch over the belt as coal is removed from underneath by the belt. A dozer is used to feed the coal into the feeder grate and can cause the arch to collapse, putting the dozer and operator down into the feeder and coal then closes in above. It's a hazard of the job, no idiocy involved.

The "self rescuer" works like a scuba diver's rebreather. It allows a person to "rebreath" the same air, when air is cutoff (like underwater or inside the coal pile). It's a breathing device that removes C02 and replaces oxygen that has been used by the body.

they have a submarine kit in all stock pile dozers... a sub kit contains of very thick hardend glass, and older style sub kits is thinner hardend glass with metal reinforcment bars that lay and bolt in touching the glass inside the cab to prevent it from collapsing while being submerged.

it is a rebreather or basically a heavy duty filter for the coal dust coming in to the cab to keep breathing air as clean as possible. might be an audible alarm as well to help guide rescue operations.

Very good video. I have to agree with other comments about safety in industry. Despite some fears many industries are extremely concerned about safety issues because accidents not only cost precious lives (and experienced people) but they cost a lot of money. Preventative safety measures are ultimately far cheaper in an advanced industrial nation. -

this is at Sidney, kentucky in Pike county. this is a very complicated and dangerous job and is hard to prevent and detect a void within the pile when it looks solid at the top.. kind of like walking on thin ice and falling through it.. you just dont know its thin til you fall through the void...

Haha you can tell the Foreman at 3:15 just opened those safety glasses and put them on because he didn't want to get in trouble for not wearing them. I guarentee you he never wears them lol

just seen this vid yet. glad that he made it out. work save guys.

Roger is a stronger man than I am that's for sure. I don't think I could have stayed calm being in there that long.

He's a brave fellow! I would have had to swim outta there! Thanks for the post. mj

agreed, if you look at your ROPS tag inside the machine you will see that most of the time its capable of withstanding the entire weight of the machine

I wonder what it would cost or how feasible it would be to put the dozer on a cable tether? Have the cable on a spring loaded roll so that it would stay relatively tight all the time. Have some swivels on it so it won't get tangled up. Have it attached to the dozer and go up a flexible antenna-like post so it stays out of the way. Then if a dozer goes down a hole or gets stuck, winch it out with a monster winch or pull with bigger dozers.

Its called 'angle of repose' which is the maximum angle a material will sit without collapsing. When material is dropping in to a chute as it was here then it is already at the maximum repose angle. Even touching the sides will cause the 'funnel' to collapse.

They got special glass thats made big. Priceless

@1nm1 Just checked it out. It appears that they are actually re-breathers that scrub CO2 and re-oxygenate from a small internal O2 bottle.

I like how they really thought about the safety of their employee and implemented the new equipment to monitor things...

Wow he is so lucky. This happened at a washery near me when he fell in he hit his head and suffocated because the engine was still running.

Me too! That last line is killer.

how did i get here and why did i contine to watch the whole video after reading both top comments?

@ 7:21 The guy explained the little flashlight very well, tells us under what conditions we may need to use it (priceless info), but we still don't know what a "self rescuer" is. I think maybe a tiny man with a shovel pops out of the package, then rescues itself. Maybe "emergency air" is a term used by another manufacturer, if that's what it is? @ 9:00 the man says to "stay calm and conserve the air in the cabin", he doesn't mention a self rescuer or emergency air.

the name of the this plant is Big Creek Processing, the mine that is beside it is Freedom Energy Mine #1...

This is a dumb question but, why don't they design the feeder hole smaller than the dozer. Or dump the coal load directly onto a moving conveyer belt.

a very good statement of safety first

@SixFoHopper -we still havent found elroy or his dozer because the bayou sucked him down...what a tragedy and lose...3 kids and a wife...the rescue team said the bottom of the swamp is more like 75 feet of muck and goo...please be informed and use pre-cauction at ALL TIMES. Elroy had 25 years of experience before he was sucked down the mire in south louisiana bog pitt.

I have watched this several times and it still strikes me as an accidence that is avoidable. I know I am not in the Industry but could there be certain areas that coal can be dumped and other areas where the dozers just are not allowed. Then perhaps spots around each vent or whatever they are called where the coal goes to the furnace, which can have vibrators or 'stirers' constantly moving the coal to push it doed to the furnace but also stopping the rat holes from developing? continued

I have done some research just today and there was a specific machine called. The RayGo Wagner CHD-15_28 Rubber Tured Coal Dozer. It had about half its length where a flat plate, horizontal to the ground was used as the dozer. I would have thought the flat blade may have stopped the dozer from sinking so far and so fast. I also wonder why on earth there is no proper protection like they would have on tanks with several inches of glass, and or a mesh covering all the openings on the dozer

Great video. What exactly is the self-rescuer?

I have a question: Why are trucks unloading coal into this pit where dozers move it to feeders? Wouldn't it be easier to have it directly unloaded into some sort of distribution building? Why is the coal loaded onto trucks in the first place, when you already have conveyor belts there? Someone enlighten me please.

I suppose this is why there is a sign at the entrance to all (Pennsylvania) mine property which states something to the effect as" All people entering this property must pass a safety course".

Good to see that it all worked out well. It could so easily have been a nasty & fatal accident.

Huge RESPECT & SALUTE to that operator! Coal still provides one-third of the electricity for the entire USA. --- Trump-Pence 2020

need to put this on repeat while i sleep haha everyone is so mono tones and relaxed haha its great:D

i worked this stockpile 5 months back... probably the hardest pile i seen in my life.. there was no excavator there at the time so they had to use other dozers to get Roger out..

@offamychain I was thinking the same thing. I had one idea in mind. Then a short time later realized the simplest solution is a grizzly grate. Not that big of a deal. Or even a series of concrete piling rising up from the inner edge of draw point. Making it so should a dozer pass the threshold, it'll only tip slightly before hitting the pillars.

I was curious too so i looked it up. a self rescuer is an emergency air unit it can provide an hour of air.

"We've created some more ideas by having the trucks to stop dumping and concentrating on the one feeder that was giving us a problem". Translation: when shit breaks down, we don't just instruct the operator drive over it. Coal mining safety has improved 10,000% in the last hundred years, from "insanely dangerous" to "extraordinarily dangerous".

they do, its called a SCSR ( self contained self rescuer ) which is shown in the video.. there are 2 in each dozer which is good for up to an hour under NORMAL breathing..

I work at that mine and worked with Roger for many years. He is really good man. It's a shame that our so called President has killed coal. God bless all coal miner's.

well they normally use rock trucks on strip jobs... they haul he coal from other underground mines to there with 10 wheelers and 18 wheelers... they also have a " glory hole " which is a hole in the ground miles away with a feeder at the bottom, coal dumps from another underground mine to outside, then falls in the hole and belted thru another mine outside at this stock pile.... pretty big mine you really wouldnt beleive how big it is..

That could make a bad situation worse. The best way really is to dig it out carefully. If the pile collapsed more while they're pulling him out from above, it would crush him and anyone who went down there with him. They don't know what other voids may be in there so if they pull on it with chains it could also cause a worse collapse. The best way really is to dig where they can see and not put any unnecessary forces on the pile to disturb it more than they have to.

Each man should have a way to shut down the operation completely.Period!

@Squarerig it's when the friction of the coal creates a "hole" void. Like some old stone bridges made by compression, still standing today. Arches they don't use a large track hoe? what about remote vibrators(offset spinning mass) placed in circle at wall of void? some of the "mass finishing machine" use offset mass to remove burrs and mirror finishes. its neat to watch horizontal augers, dumping cones, they had problems with grain and no more.

As for myself, I enjoy the ability to see.

That dude was pretty cool. No doubt in my mind he stayed calm and cool

Never, never underestimate safety.

What a gruesome situation. Where was this?

A self rescuer is a breathing apparatus, which utilizes compressed oxygen as source to form isolated oxygen of closed circuit to provide wearer with clean oxygen Mainly used under a mine or in environment where toxic gases exist or oxygen is deficient

thats not a power plant, its a coal preparation plant at Sidney, Kentucky.. i used to work this stock pile about a year ago until i got laid off.. when the pile gets up that big, theres no telling exactly where the feeder is until there is an actual "hole" on the top.. sometimes it will feed through at the bottom, and you never see it at the top.. if you so some research, coal trucks in the number source of haulage in the world in mining industry

@TheZeke1974 Amen. Many of my relatives including my father were coal miners in Ohio, but it seems many on this page hate miners for some unknown reason.

The CSE SCSR100 Hard to believe that it was my uncle's design that still lives on today.

My coal truck was loaded heavy, S turn too fast, weight physics break the weld @ the fifth wheel to trailer, truck turns over on it's side @ 50 mph ( remember 80,000 lbs ) slide in the tractor, on it's side, towards a 100 ft. drop off. Stop just feet from going over, coal all over this 2 lane, heavy travelled road, trailer on it's side stops just inches from coming through the cab into my face. I push the door up, get out to the ground, fall to my knees, thank GOD it ended like it did. The last day driving for me. Wife begged, got a new job. COAL hauling and pit work is dangerous beyond most people's knowledge. Loaders, drivers, operators get killed all the time. You stand that trailer up to dump, 40,000 lbs comes out, 20,000 lbs sticks in the nose, your on soft coal and it start to go over. Maybe you can get it down and move forward before it turns over, maybe not. Most drivers have done it. Not deadly bit dangerous. Respect the coal haulers that pass you on the road, pit men. A HARD job, from can til can't. May God Bless and keep all safe. This guy will never be the same. No PTSD benefits in the coal world, but it's there.

That remote control dozer is a great machine!

Do they put GPS on the dozers now adays to warn them which areas to stay away from ?

@SixFoHopper I dont think that's intended for the situation of being trapped under coal. More likely it's if the dozer gets busted up some how so that the door cant be opened normally.

Respect for all coal miners world wide ⛏️⚒️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I guess they wouldn't let him take a shower before the interview. They took him straight from the rescue to do this interview lol

A self rescuer is a flash light and an inflatable shovel! :D

how does it work??? does it give oxygen to the person in trouble or does it remove the carbon dioxide from the air.

Would a small blast work to dislodge coal over jammed feeders?

@Booger6995 Ah right! Thanks for your reply! That explains a lot to me.

i t6hink that is so ausome keep up the great work guys...

In response to Robert111 : Always jump from a tipping or falling machine. You can cushion the fall of the machine that way. Or even catch it and tip back up on it's tracks/wheels. Me, personally, I prefer to stay in the cab, seatbelt on. Just my thinking anyway. Well gotta get back to my Tonka toys now.

Wow!!!!! I hope I never get trapped under a mountain of coal, going into the feeder. But Seriously, Folks...this is an inportant video. How to stay alive when you're trap in your bulldozer.

What's all in the SELF RESCUE KIT?

Is this West Virginia?

I'm glad they finally asked the question at 9:50 -- why in hell do operators even need to be in the dozers?

same here i am glad he is ok that would be crazy ..... not good

how many people died? What happened? did they get the dozer out? I don't have 11 min to watch the whole thing.

My experience with corporations is that they are obsessed with safety. Accidents are expensive and they go to ridiculous effort to stop them.

dude crazy video I bet that was one hell of a ride though

I thought I knew this location and when the Forman came out I knew for sure that was Papal.

What the fuck am i watching!!!! ahhhhhh youtube... u did it to me again!!!!!!

@SixFoHopper That's for situations where part of the cab is buried - think about it.

Hey,, This is Sidney's Freedom one Mine/Plant i'm pretty sure.