Mining Incidents

Mining Incidents in Texas

Every reportable accident on file with MSHA at a Texas mine. Operators below are ranked by recorded fatality count in this state.

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Fatalities recorded
70
Total incidents
11,886
Fatal rate
1%
Years on record
2000–2026

Year-over-year fatalities

  1. 2000 4
  2. 2001 1
  3. 2002 4
  4. 2003 2
  5. 2004 3
  6. 2005 2
  7. 2006 1
  8. 2007 3
  9. 2008 4
  10. 2009 2
  11. 2010 3
  12. 2013 1
  13. 2014 5
  14. 2016 2
  15. 2017 1
  16. 2018 3
  17. 2019 3
  18. 2020 2
  19. 2021 5
  20. 2022 2
  21. 2023 5
  22. 2024 4
  23. 2025 4
  24. 2026 4

Top mines in Texas by fatality count

  1. 01 Midlothian Quarry and Plant 3fatal
  2. 02 Sherwin Alumina, L.P. 3fatal
  3. 03 Big Oak Plant 2fatal
  4. 04 Bayer Alumina Plant 2fatal
  5. 05 Ash Grove Cement Company 2fatal

Top operators by fatality count

  1. 01 TXI (A/K/A Texas Industries Inc) 4fatal
  2. 02 Sherwin Alumina Company, LLC 3fatal
  3. 03 1845 Texas Stone Products, Inc. 2fatal
  4. 04 Alcoa World Alumina LLC 2fatal
  5. 05 Alleyton Resource Company, LLC. 2fatal
  6. 06 Arcosa Aggregates, Inc. 2fatal
  7. 07 Ash Grove Cement Company 2fatal
  8. 08 Frontera Materials Inc 2fatal
  9. 09 North American Silica Sand, LLC 2fatal
  10. 10 SP Silica of Atascosa, LLC 2fatal

Recent fatalities

March 28, 2026 TX · Metal/Non-Metal steel worker, iron metal worker, iron worker Fatality · SLIP OR FALL OF PERSON
Alpine Silica, LLC · Fall from scaffolds, walkways, platforms

Employee unhooked lanyard and fell through roof resulting in fatal injuries.

January 8, 2026 TX · Metal/Non-Metal haul/off road/coal/ore/pit/quarry/rock/rubber tire truck driver, transportation truck driver Fatality · POWERED HAULAGE
Ash Grove Cement South Texas LLC · Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

Third party delivery driver of raw materials was found deceased trapped between the frame and dump bed of EE's I-Bar owned and operated delivery truck. The driver was located on the West edge of the iron ore stockpile.

May 1, 2025 TX · Metal/Non-Metal rotary bucket excavator operator Fatality · FALLING/SLIDING/ROLLING MATERIALS
SP Silica of Atascosa, LLC · Struck by rolling or sliding object

EE was operating an excavator in Pit 2 at SPS Atascosa. Pit 2 is located between two tailings ponds. 9:18 AM one of the tailings ponds breached causing tailings mixture to flow into the work site. Tailings mixture tipped over the excavator EE was operating cab side down. The front window broke, tailings mixture engulfed the cab & 75% of the vehicle. Employee could not escape.

January 30, 2025 TX · Metal/Non-Metal outside foreman, leadman Fatality · MACHINERY
Ellinger Sand & Gravel · Caught in, under or between running or meshing objects

Miner did not follow protocol. Therefore causing the death of the same.

January 30, 2025 TX · Metal/Non-Metal stone finishing and sizing personnel, stone/rock cut/polish/saw operator, splitter, cutter, trimmer Fatality · POWERED HAULAGE
Salado Operations · Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

Employee in the thin veneer area was crushed by a pallet of stone that was placed on them by another employee in a wheel loader.

January 3, 2025 TX · Metal/Non-Metal utility man, shift tech, service/dump truck operator Fatality · FALLING/SLIDING/ROLLING MATERIALS
WES AGG, LLC · Caught in, under or between collapsing material or buildings

Trench was dug to repair drain pipe. No sloping or shoring protection system was in place. Trench was approximately 10 foot deep and 8 foot wide. Side wall collapsed and crushed worker.

November 5, 2024 TX · Metal/Non-Metal haul/off road/coal/ore/pit/quarry/rock/rubber tire truck driver, transportation truck driver Fatality · POWERED HAULAGE
DelHur Industries, Inc. · Struck against a moving object

At this time unknown dump point failure causing haul truck operated by the deceased to back and roll down the dump point.

August 9, 2024 TX · Metal/Non-Metal master mechanic, foreman, supervisor Fatality · ELECTRICAL
Buzzi Unicem USA · Flash burns (electric)

Arc flash event involving electrical equipment that resulted in burns to the employee's arms and torso as well as electrical equipment damage. The employee was injured and hospitalized after the incident but, passed away in the hospital on 08/22/2024.

May 9, 2024 TX · Metal/Non-Metal maintenance man, mechanic, repair/serviceman, boilermaker, fueler, tire tech, field service tech Fatality · POWERED HAULAGE
ARCOSA LWS,LLC · Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

May 9, 2024 at 0800 hours when a manlift operator ran EE's manlift, an 8008 JLG, serial number 0300310942, into the canopy covering the C35 conveyor belt coming out of C35 tunnel. The operator was pinned between the roof edge and the man basket hand rail.

January 2, 2024 TX · Metal/Non-Metal haul/off road/coal/ore/pit/quarry/rock/rubber tire truck driver, transportation truck driver Fatality · POWERED HAULAGE
Frontera Materials Inc · Struck by falling object

An over the road truck driver was crushed while trying to unload gravel. Driver was parked in a jackknife position while trying to unload some of the gravel in EE's bed. While attempting to dump, EE's lift cylinder snapped and the trucks trailer fell on top of the driver's side killing the driver. 911 was called immediately and MSHA was called after.

August 5, 2023 TX · Metal/Non-Metal haul/off road/coal/ore/pit/quarry/rock/rubber tire truck driver, transportation truck driver Fatality · SLIP OR FALL OF PERSON
Superior Silica Sands LLC · Fall from machine

Improper procedure performed, improper PPE, and not following SOP. *A customer truck driver fell from a large container mounted on the trailer of the truck while descending the container. The customer truck driver died from the injuries on August 7, 2023.

June 1, 2023 TX · Metal/Non-Metal haul/off road/coal/ore/pit/quarry/rock/rubber tire truck driver, transportation truck driver Fatality · MACHINERY
Alleyton Resource Company, LLC. · Struck by rolling or sliding object

An outside truck driver came onto this site to get loaded where the driver then parked their truck and was out of view from out scale house. Driver began to work on the back of the truck where the air bag blew out from under the truck and hit the driver in the head. Driver was not our employee, nor was the driver supposed to be working on their truck.

May 16, 2023 TX · Coal bulldozer operator, universal operator, heavy equipment operator, operating engineer Fatality · FALLING/SLIDING/ROLLING MATERIALS
NACG Texas, Inc. · Struck by rolling or sliding object

While SC0539 Bulldozer was traveling on 1B Ramp, a large volume of material entered the road and contacted the bulldozer.

March 9, 2023 TX · Metal/Non-Metal haul/off road/coal/ore/pit/quarry/rock/rubber tire truck driver, transportation truck driver Fatality · POWERED HAULAGE
Texas Lime Company · Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

At time of filing it is believed a front-end loader struck the back of the tractor trailer. The position of the victim at the time of the accident is still under investigation. The victim was found under the rear driver's side tires of the tractor.

February 25, 2023 TX · Metal/Non-Metal rotary bucket excavator operator Fatality · OTHER

326 FL Excavator operator tracked over berm into Settling pond

December 16, 2022 TX · Metal/Non-Metal maintenance man, mechanic, repair/serviceman, boilermaker, fueler, tire tech, field service tech Fatality · MACHINERY
SP Silica of Atascosa, LLC · Struck by falling object

Employee was working with a 3 man crew dismantling a Caterpillar 390F Excavator. During dismantling, EE was impacted by the counterweight. The other 2 crew members did not witness the accident.

September 9, 2022 TX · Metal/Non-Metal barge/boat/dredge/towbarge/towboat/leach operator, riverman, deck hand Fatality · OTHER

Dredge operator was missing and eventually found at bottom of lake.

December 13, 2021 TX · Metal/Non-Metal haul/off road/coal/ore/pit/quarry/rock/rubber tire truck driver, transportation truck driver Fatality · POWERED HAULAGE
Martin Marietta Materials Southwest, LLC · Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

Customer truck driver pulled into tarping area behind another truck and failed to set parking brake before exiting the truck. The driver did not use wheel chocks as required. The customer truck driver was fatally injured when customer's truck moved forward and pinned customer truck driver against the other drivers truck.

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