Injured miner still in critical condition

Bryon Christy, 44, was injured Christmas Eve as he was working at the Black....

  Bryon Christy, 44, was injured Christmas Eve as he was working at the Black Thunder mine near Wright, Wyo. The bulldozer he was driving rolled on a "dig face" and fell about 45 feet.According to a family spokesman, Oz Hespe of Belle Fourche, Christy remains in a coma with head injuries received in the mining incident.Hespe said his wife's brother Bryon has been responding to some touches, and his eyes do give some response. A fracture of his neck is not a current major concern, but Christy has some problems with blood clotting and his condition changes "minute by minute, day by day.""The doctors tell us it's going to be a long, long, long process, but there still is hope," Hespe said.Doctors are looking at treatment options, but Christy's condition must first be stabilized, Hespe said. "He's still fighting."When Christy's dozer rolled, it was snowing heavily in the Wright and Gillette area. He was taken to the Campbell County Memorial Hospital in Gillette, but a helicopter evacuation to Rapid City Regional was slowed by the weather."We don't know exactly what happened," Hespe said.But, he added, contrary to some rumors, Christy had operated the dozer before, and he was wearing a seat belt when the vehicle rolled once and landed on its tracks.Christy had been head of the Belle Fourche park department before taking a mining job in Wyoming. The new RiverWalk garden behind the band shell at Herrmann Park is named for him.His son Bradley, 25, is on leave from military service in Iraq, Hespe said, and his daughter Lacie, 24, Las Vegas, is coming to be with her father.Christy and his wife, Karen, have two children at home -- Zach, 12, and Lauren, 9 -- who are staying with relatives in Belle Fourche while Karen is staying as close as possible to her husband in the Rapid City hospital. She is a second-grade teacher in Belle Fourche.Bonnie Christy, Bryon's mother, is a Belle Fourche resident. Karen's parents, Alfred and Evelyn Bolte of Bowman, N.D., have visited Christy since the accident.According to a Mine Safety and Health Administration report quoted in a Casper, Wyo., Star-Tribune story immediately after the accident, MSHA and the Wyoming state mine inspector were notified of the accident Monday. MSHA officials were investigating the accident on site at the mine Wednesday.According to the Star-Tribune, in the fall of 2006, MSHA forced a temporary shutdown to a portion of the mine, alleging it had put its employees in “imminent danger” regarding highwall safety.Two highwall failures at the mine in 2002 killed one coal miner and paralyzed another miner.