The incident just occurred yesterday (8/21/14). A miner operator (underground coal) was cutting rock bottoms in a mine construction area, when he either hit a rib bolt with the cutter head, or a miner bit sheared in two. In either case, the steel fragment became a high speed projectile and struck the employee in the eye. As you can see in the photos, had the employee NOT been wearing safety glasses, his injuries would have been severe and in all likelihood, he would have lost his eye. Following the incident, the employee stated, “I saw it coming at me but it was flying so fast that I had no time to react.” The employee did sustain minor superficial cuts above and below his eye as a result of the impact of the steel piece against the safety glasses, but he returned to work on the very next shift with no residual effects and as though no incident had even occurred.
