3 killed in southern Indiana coal mine accident

PRINCETON, Ind. – An accident at an air shaft under construction at a southern Indiana coal mine killed three people Friday, police said.\nDetective Mike Hurt said the people died in a basket used to transport people up and down a 600-foot air shaft, but he could not say whether they fell. Authorities did not believe there had been a cave-in or an explosion, he said. They also didn’t believe anyone else was trapped or injured.\nCrews were working to remove the bodies at Gibson County Coal after the late-morning accident, Sgt. Jay Riley said.\nA message left at the Gibson County coroner’s office was not immediately returned.\nThe mine, owned by Tulsa, Okla.-based Alliance Resource Partners, is northwest of Princeton, about 30 miles north of Evansville.\nFire crews, police and the coroner were at the scene at the remote location surrounded by farm fields.\nJulie Dozier, personnel coordinator at Gibson County Coal, confirmed the accident but offered few details.\nFrontier-Kemper Constructors Inc. was working on a service shaft for Gibson Coal near Princeton, according the Frontier-Kemper Web site. The company was designing and constructing a 550-foot deep shaft with a diameter of 28 feet, the Web site said.\nThe Indiana Department of Labor was trying to confirm details of the accident, said spokesman Sean Keefer. Officials from that agency and the Indiana Bureau of Mines are at the mine investigating, he said.\nAccording to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration’s Web site, the last fatality at the mine was in November 2001, when a miner died when he was pinned by equipment. That accident was blamed on operator error.\nThe mine began production in July 2000.\nIn 2006, the company produced more than 3.5 million tons of coal, ranking second among the state’s coal producers, according to the Indiana Coal Council.