Wrongful-death lawsuit filed in Indiana mining accident

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The family of a man who plunged more than 500 feet in a coal mine's air shaft filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Thursday against a company he helped found that was building the shaft.

The lawsuit alleges Frontier-Kemper Constructors Inc. was negligent in providing safety measures to Daniel McFadden, 66, and two other men who fell from a construction bucket during an August tour of the mining shaft.

The complaint says Frontier-Kemper failed to provide safety belts or harnesses as fall protection, and that a 20-foot nylon sling and shackle attached to the bottom of the bucket should have been removed when the three men entered the bucket to be lowered. An employee who was supposed to watch the bucket also left to do other work when the bucket was lowered, the lawsuit states.

Attorneys for McFadden's wife, Sandra Lee McFadden, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court. It seeks $9.5 million in damages, as well as compensation for funeral expenses and lost income.

George Zugel, corporate safety director for Evansville-based Frontier-Kemper, said he was unaware of the lawsuit and declined comment.

McFadden, of Greybull, Wyo., was visiting the mining site near Princeton, about 30 miles north of Evansville, as part of a 30th anniversary celebration of the merger that formed the company. McFadden founded Frontier Constructors in 1965, and the company merged with Kemper Constructors in 1977.

Jarred Ashmore, 23, of Henderson, Ky., and Christopher Todd Richardson, 38, of Cedar Bluff, Va., also died in the fall.

A report by the Indiana Bureau of Mines and Mine Safety in March found that the bucket carrying the men had traveled about 20 feet when the sling became wedged in a door and tipped the bucket. The men died of blunt impact trauma.

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