Thursday, April 15, 2010
Nothing like a fatal disaster to perk up the inspections
Now if they result in improvements to the mines, 29 men will not have died in vain.In the week since the nation's worst mine disaster in decades took the lives of 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, the number of safety violations found by government regulators at mine owner Massey Energy's other operations has skyrocketed.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration cited 130 "significant and substantial" violations at dozens of Massey's mines from April 6 to April 14, according to a HuffPost analysis of MSHA records. That exceeds the number of violations found at those same mines for the entire month of March. In total, the agency found 460 violations at Massey's mines, which exceeds the 351 violations at those same mines in March. Such S&S violations are considered much more serious, because they present a direct risk to the health and safety of mine workers.
Shockingly, almost half of the safety violations were found at just one Massey mine -- Mine #1, an underground mine operated by Massey subsidiary Freedom Energy Mining Company in Pike County, Kentucky. That mine has amassed more than 3,000 violations since 2005 and incurred $3 million in proposed penalties, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal, though its non-fatal injury rate has been below the national average. (In addition, the Washington Independent has been keeping a running tally of violations at Massey mines.)
More from Bloomberg.
Subscribe to Comments [Atom]
Post a Comment