How complete the record is
Every MSHA fatality since January 2000, checked one by one against the investigation report MSHA published for it.
RecordStrata holds every fatality investigation report MSHA has published from 2003 to the present. Across all years since 2000, 1,163 of 1,210 recorded fatalities are matched to their published report: 96.1 per cent.
The count starts from MSHA's own accident data. Every fatality recorded under 30 CFR Part 50 since January 1, 2000 was matched, victim by victim, to the investigation report that covers it, using the mine ID, the accident date and the report itself. A fatality counts as covered only when its report is held as MSHA published it and has been matched to the accident record.
Where the 47 gaps are
None of the gaps is hidden. Each falls into one of three groups, and each is itemized in the project records.
| Period | Status | Fatalities without a matched report | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 to 2024 | Complete as published | 1 | Every report MSHA published for these years is held and matched. The one exception is a 2016 fatality for which MSHA has not published an investigation report. That is a gap in the government's publication, not in the collection. |
| 2000 to 2002 | Substantial | 28 2000: 10 2001: 6 2002: 12 | MSHA published these years' reports as early web pages. Some have not yet been located and recovered; recovery continues case by case. |
| 2025 and 2026 | Awaiting MSHA | 18 2025: 3 2026: 15 | MSHA typically publishes a final report about five months after an accident. These reports are added as MSHA releases them, on a quarterly refresh. |
Seven of the 1,163 matched fatalities involve a report and an accident record that disagree on a date or an identifier. Both values are kept and the difference is flagged; neither is silently corrected.
The structured records behind each report
An investigation report is one layer. RecordStrata also holds MSHA's structured enforcement data, so a report can be joined to what came before and after it:
- about 274,000 accident, injury and illness records from 2000 to August 2026, including every fatality counted above;
- about 3.1 million violation records from 1994 to August 2026, including roughly 30,000 issued under section 104(d);
- about 480,000 civil-penalty docket entries across roughly 94,000 dockets, from proposed assessment to final decision.
What the collection does not include
The collection is built from MSHA's public record. It does not include civil pleadings, settlements, insurance files, private maintenance records or state investigation files. Where a Deep-Read or an Ask the Record answer needs one of those, it says so rather than filling the gap.
Counts as of September 6, 2026, using MSHA accident data through August 2026. This page is updated at each quarterly refresh. Questions about a specific accident: records@recordstrata.ai.