Benjamin Slusher, a 25-year-old coal truck driver from the Flat Lick community in Knox County, was killed Monday morning in a crash at a coal mine in the Cawood community of southern Harlan County. He was pronounced dead at 8:18 a.m., about 78 minutes after the wreck happened around 7 a.m. on the mine’s haul road.
The crash occurred at the Nally and Hamilton coal mine, according to WYMT. The outlet reported that Slusher was driving the truck involved in the crash. A Kentucky State Police trooper, Shane Jacobs, told the station that something malfunctioned on the truck, causing it to lose control. “It caused the collision, and that individual is deceased,” Jacobs said. The initial belief, per the station’s report, is that Slusher’s truck suffered a rare malfunction before the crash, and no other vehicles were involved.
Single-Vehicle Wreck, No Other Injuries Reported
The Lexington Herald-Leader confirmed the timeline, reporting the crash happened around 7 a.m. Monday on the haul road at Nally & Hamilton and that Slusher was pronounced dead at 8:18 a.m. The paper also noted that Slusher was a contract driver for the mining company, according to the coroner’s office. The Harlan Enterprise reported it was a single-vehicle accident and that no other injuries occurred as a result.
Kentucky State Police, the state Division of Mine Safety, and the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration were all investigating the incident, according to the same WYMT account. As of the available reporting, the cause had not moved beyond the trooper’s account and the initial belief that equipment failure preceded the crash.
A Second Kentucky Mining Death This Year
The fatality adds to a difficult year for Kentucky’s mining industry. In a separate incident on May 20, 2026, at Pine Branch Mining LLC’s Combs Branch job mine in Chavies, Perry County, 25-year-old Preston B. Pollard was killed when a front-end loader counterweight he was removing fell on him, according to a Mine Safety and Health Administration final report describing him as a technician with one year of mining experience.
Slusher’s death was reported by WYMT on November 9, 2026, before Kentucky Today published its report on the crash on November 10. Governor Andy Beshear said he and First Lady Britainy Beshear were praying for Slusher’s family, adding that the tragedy highlights the dangers faced daily by workers in the coal industry.
