Governor Jim Justice Confirms Coal Miner’s Death

A coal miner died in an accident Monday at Mingo Logan Coal Co.’s Mountaineer II Mine in Sharples. A statement from the governor confirmed that Brian Wallen passed away in the incident. Wallen was an assistant chief electrician with 25 years of mining experience. It’s the sixth coal mining-related fatality in West Virginia this year. The state had two coal mining deaths for all of 2020.