On the day of the accident, Wynetta Raye started working at 9:00 a.m., about an hour after her normal starting time.  She delivered packages throughout the day.  About 2:05 p.m., Raye parked on the county road in front of the mine and walked toward a front-end loader that was operating about 200 feet away.

Lawrence Borne, Front-end Loader Operator, was operating the loader and moving material from a stockpile to the feeder hopper at the plant.  About the time Raye arrived, Borne moved the loader up the feeder hopper ramp and placed a bucket of material in the hopper.  He then backed the loader down the ramp, steered right, and continued to back up until it was situated about 90 degrees to the stockpile and out of the travel lane of oncoming customer trucks.  The loader stopped 134 feet from the feeder hopper.

Borne then looked toward the stockpile with the intention of retrieving another bucket load of material.  At that time, Gregory Bradford, Customer Truck Driver, was sitting in the cab of his parked truck about 130 feet from the loader.  Bradford honked his horn because he noticed that Raye had walked within a few feet of the back end of the front-end loader.

Both Borne and Raye looked toward Bradford.  Raye waved a package in the air, turned, and started to walk back toward her truck.  Borne looked over his shoulder and saw the FedEx truck parked on the nearby county road but did not see Raye.

Borne started backing the front-end loader toward the FedEx truck about the same time that Raye started walking toward the truck.  Bradford again honked his horn to get Borne's attention but Borne did not see Raye.  Borne continued backing the loader, struck Raye, and traveled another 70 feet.  He stopped the loader about 60 feet from the FedEx truck and saw Raye lying on the ground.