U.S. coal miners unprepared for evacuation: GAO - Reuters

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Source: Reuters

U.S. coal miners unprepared for evacuation: GAO

By Lisa Lambert
2 hours, 5 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. coal miners are unprepared to handle
emergency underground evacuations, the Government Accountability
Office said Wednesday.

In a report to Congress, the independent investigating agency said
half of U.S. mines have not had evacuation drills simulating emergency
conditions over the last year, despite a federal requirement to run
drills every 90 days that recreate accidents' environments.

The GAO said the small number of drills can be blamed on high costs
and rushed work schedules, but investigators also said the Mine Safety
Health Administration does not provide all mines with information on
running a simulation.

-snip-

The GAO also found that over the last decade about half of the
companies that appealed fines for safety violations from MSHA had
their fines reduced by an average of 49 percent. The discounts were
rarely related to the gravity of the violations, and there was no
consistency in how or why they were reduced, GAO said

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070516/us_nm/usa_energy_mining_dc