the Informer

Earlier this week there was a terrible tragedy in a West Virginia coal mine. The Massey Energy Co. At least 25 miners died in a fatal explosion on Monday. As of Wednesday morning there are still four miners missing. Could this tragic incident have been avoided?

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration routinely checks mines for infractions and hazards. The Massey Energy Co. was fined almost $900,000 in 2009 violations. Also in the first quarter of this year they have been fined over $100,000 and some of the fines were for not correcting the problems that were already pointed out to them by the government. The violations also include failure of escape routes for miners, poor ventilation for air, too many workers underground and working too many hours. This company has also violated the Clean Water Act by dumping more waste into the waterways that is permitted by the act.

This is unacceptable. There have been many mining accidents in the past few years and tighter restrictions have been put into place by the government for safety. But if they aren’t being followed there is no point in enacting them. If companies are cited and fined and still nothing comes of it, what then? This particular mine “received 458 citations from federal inspectors in 2009, and more than 50 of those were for problems that the operators knew about but have not corrected,” according to CNN.com.

This is a huge problem. The number of citations, at 458, is an excessive number and 50 of them could have been corrected and were neglected. This is jeopardizing the health and safety of the workers and quite possibly could have prevented this tragedy. It is too soon to determine the exact cause of this accident but this is the fourth fatal accident there in the last 12 years, according to cnn.com.

How can you disregard these safety regulations? They are essentially just paying fines to avoid making the changes that the government feels should be made. The government should have stepped in earlier. It’s fine that you are citing them and charging them for their violations but how long should the government let that go before they take more drastic action?

After having 458 citations in one year, it becomes a huge problem and at least 50 of them were not acted upon to change. The company purposely ignored the violations and I think the government should be able to step in and do something more than just fine because apparently that doesn’t seem to work.

As the events of this tragedy unfold it will be seen if the violations were the cause of it or not.

Regardless, changes need to be made for the overall health and safety of the miners.