Mine Safety Training

Jason James has never watched the video of his accident. He doesn’t need to – he still has nightmares about it.

In 1999, James was doing support work on a tunnel boring machine when he “was slabbed with approximately 960 pounds of rock.”

“It seemed like the whole world came down on me,” he said.

The first rock that fell pinned his right foot to the drill deck and he was knocked unconscious. He spent the next 11 months in the hospital. Along with five broken ribs, he would eventually have 10 surgeries on his foot, two surgeries on his shoulder, and he continues to have surgeries on his knee to this day. Another miner who was working with James and saw what happened walked off the job that night and never came back.

“He didn’t want his baby growing up without a father,” said James, whose family has been in mining for many years.

Since then, mining safety has been a personal mission of his – a mission that has coincided with the revolution in the mining industry to focus on safety first.

“Safety is totally different from when I started over 20 years ago,” James said. “It used to be production came first and then came safety, if you have the time.”

When James took his initial 40-hour new miner training in the 1980s, supervisors would bring them to a room and say “Sit here and watch these videos,” James said. Now, everything is taught in person with a much more hands-on approach and “If someone’s not getting it, you can step in and explain it to them until they do.”

North Idaho College was recently awarded a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, Mine Safety Health Administration to offer MSHA required mine safety classes throughout the state of Idaho. These classes allow mining companies the opportunity to maintain compliance with safety regulations. James can customize his trainings for individual companies. He is an MSHA-approved instructor specializing in Parts 46, 48 and 49 of CFR 30. He’s also a Certified Occupational Safety and Health Specialist as well as a certified TapRooT (RCA).

James said his immediate goal is to let miners, mining companies and contractors in Idaho know about the services he’s offering. “I can now train any place, any time for both surface and underground mines,” he said. “Even if it’s just one person, I’ll hold a class for that one person.”

For information on mining-related training, contact the NIC Workforce Training Center at 208.625.2359, or email minesafety@nic.edu.

Safety Fest of the Northwest to be held Feb. 17-19

The NIC Workforce Training Center will offer a wide variety of free safety training at the eighth annual Safety Fest of the Great Northwest Feb. 17-19, 2016. This three-day event is an opportunity for companies to receive free safety training for their employees from the area’s best safety instructors. Safety Fest offers more than 40 classes to choose from for workers in construction, general industry, mining, agriculture and logging. Classes offered include OSHA 10, CPR/First Aid, MSHA refresher, Hazwoper refresher, Fall Protection, Forklift and Water Safety, among others.

For Safety Fest sponsorship and volunteer information, contact Colleen Hoffman at 208.769.7732. Register at www.nic.edu/safetyfest.

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