Peabody sued in death of worker at Grants coal mine

Dec. 22—The family of a 23-year-old man killed in 2022 after he was crushed by a 13-ton steel door filed a lawsuit alleging negligence by the mining company that owned the equipment.

David Warren, a contract welder, was pinned at the waist while he was making repairs to a huge earth-moving shovel at the El Segundo Coal Mine near Grants, the lawsuit said.

Warren was not killed immediately and suffered painful injuries when a plastic block gave way and the giant door crushed him, the suit contends.

“Warren shrieked in pain, the door pinning him in half,” the suit said. Warren’s “legs hung outside the steel door but his torso and upper body were trapped inside the closed bucket.” When workers were able to reopen the door, Warren fell seven feet to the ground, it said.

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed Dec. 9 in 1st Judicial District Court, seeks unspecified damages from defendants Peabody Energy, a multi-national mining giant, and its subsidiary El Segundo Coal Co. LLC.

A spokeswoman for Peabody Energy did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment about the lawsuit.

The suit alleges the companies were negligent for failing to develop proper safety procedures for repairing a huge electric shovel used at the mine.

It also alleges the companies were negligent in their response to the injury, causing needless delay in evacuating Warren. Mine officials also failed to call 911 to report the injury, it said.

“I work a lot of sad cases,” said the family’s attorney, Tyson Logan of Wyoming. “This one is especially hard.”

Warren’s parents and sisters sought legal representation seeking answers about Warren’s death.

“We know this should not have happened,” Warren’s family said in a written statement. “It’s not right. It’s been devastating for our family. We want more answers and justice — and we want to help other families avoid what we’re going through.”

Warren and two co-workers went to the El Segundo Mine in the high country north of Grants on Aug. 22, 2022, to repair the latch on a giant door of an electric shovel with a bucket payload of 56 cubic yards.

Peabody Energy had developed a system for propping open the door of the bucket using what the suit described as a “single large plastic block, like a square doorstop.”

Warren was standing at the edge of the bucket “when the plastic block suddenly shot out with a bang,” it said. “The door slammed shut, crushing Warren at his waist.”

The suit also alleges that the mine didn’t have a clear rescue plan for coordinating a helicopter rescue after Warren’s injury at 1:57 a.m. Aug. 23, 2022.

“We just know that no one called 911,” Logan said. Instead, mine officials called a private air ambulance company but provided inaccurate coordinates that made it difficult for the medical helicopter crew to find the proper location, he said. The flight crew contacted 911 directly seeking directions to the mine.

“The 911 operator actively investigated, calling local authorities, and working to coordinate and determine an appropriate response to the El Segundo Mine,” the suit said.

When the helicopter arrived at 3:20 a.m., more than two hours after the injury, “it was too late,” the suit said. “Warren was pronounced dead at 3:23 a.m.”

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