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Mining is heavily mechanized and automated already, yet remains inescapably dangerous. Pragmatically speaking, when someone falls off a roof or a tree, it does
by cpgxiii 2y ago
Mining is heavily mechanized and automated already, yet remains inescapably dangerous.
Pragmatically speaking, when someone falls off a roof or a tree, it doesn't turn into a highly public, high-risk, government-responsibility rescue mission. When someone gets trapped in a mine, it does.
(If you fall off a tree logging in Alaska, there is a good chance a USCG helicopter crew comes to your aid, but that is more of a "five minutes in the local news" story than "nightly news host reporting live on location" event.)
- nl 2y agoI suspect the vast majority of deaths in underground mining in the US aren't from cave-ins but instead from heavy equipment accidents. According to [1] there were 8 deaths in underground machine operators category in 2022. There's a more detailed table at [2] but I don't quite understand how this aligns with the first one (the numbers seem different, but I think the category is "Mining (except oil and gas)"). In any case the majority of fatalities are from "Transportation incidents" or "Contact with object and equipment". I think cave-ins would be classed as "Fires and explosions" [1] https://www.bls.gov/charts/census-of-fatal-occupational-injuries/civilian-occupations-with-high-fatal-work-injury-rates.htm https://www.bls.gov/charts/census-of-fatal-occupational-inju... [2] https://www.bls.gov/iif/fatal-injuries-tables/fatal-occupational-injuries-table-a-1-2022.htm https://www.bls.gov/iif/fatal-injuries-tables/fatal-occupati...