Were the Deaths of the 12 Coal Miners Preventable? A Look At the Sago Mine

Yesterday morning, 12 of the 13 coal miners initially thought to have survived a mine explosion at Sago Mines in Central West Virginia, were pronounced dead. The explosion occurred on Monday morning in a sealed section of the mine, and trapped 13 miners 260 feet below the mine"s surface. Their immediate fate was unknown but by Tuesday night company officials announced they had found toxic levels of carbon monoxide in the area where the miners were thought to be. That night West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin acknowledged at a press conference that there was little hope there would be any survivors. Then late Tuesday night, the company that owns the mine, International Coal Group, announced that 12 of the miners had been found alive. Family members and friends who had gathered in a local church heard the news from the rescue command center and celebrated with cheering and singing for almost three hours. Many newspapers on the east coast ran headlines proclaiming the miners to be alive.

Then early Wednesday morning the CEO of ICG, Ben Hatfield, announced that actually only one miner, Randy McCloy, had survived the blast. After the announcement, chaos broke out at the Sago Baptist church and the devastated families grew increasingly angry after it emerged that mine officials had known within 45 minutes that original reports of the miners" survival might have been false, but they had waited to tell the families. A fight broke out inside the church and a mining company official had to be escorted away under police protection. These are family members speaking to reporters yesterday after they heard the news.

* Family members react to mine deaths

Also on Wednesday, the CEO of the International Coal Group, Ben Hatfield, gave a press conference and expressed regret that the families of the 12 dead miners were mistakenly led to believe for three hours that their loved ones were alive. He also tried to explain why the miscommunication happened.

* Ben Hatfield, the CEO of the International Coal Group

Monday's explosion at Sago mine is the state"s deadliest mining accident since 1968. Seventy-eight men, including the uncle of the current governor, died in that disaster. The tragedy propelled Congress to pass the historic Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969.

The deaths of the 12 miners this week at Sago mine highlighted ongoing safety problems. Last year alone Sago mine was cited for over 200 health and safety violations. Inspectors found 16 violations in the past 8 months that were listed as "unwarrantable failures."

Sago mine was forced to suspend operations 16 times in 2005 after failing to comply with safety rules. The violations found at Sago included mine roofs that collapsed without warning, faulty tunnel supports and a dangerous build-up of flammable coal dust. But the fines that the company were required to pay were extremely low, most of them $250 or $60 dollars.

Government documents also show a high rate of accidents at Sago. 42 workers and contractors have been injured in accidents since 2000 and the average number of working days lost because of accidents in the past five years was nearly double the national average for underground coal mines.

We are joined now by Ken Ward Jr., staff writer for West Virginia"s Charleston Gazette and investigative reporter who wrote an award-winning series of articles about coal-industry abuses in West Virginia, revealing that state regulators routinely ignore the law when they issue mountaintop removal permits. He continues to cover industry abuses for the Gazette.

We also invited ICG to be on the program but they did not return our calls.

* Ken Ward, staff writer for the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia. He wrote an award-winning series of articles for the paper about coal-industry abuses in West Virginia, revealing that state regulators routinely ignore the law when they issue mountaintop removal permits.

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