Don't Call It An Accident (Utah mine collapse)

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:


Don't Call It An Accident
Submitted by Robert Borosage on August 17, 2007 - 3:28pm.


Three lives are lost and counting in the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah. The flamboyant, camera-hogging mine owner, Bob Murray, has called this a "once in a lifetime" accident, like a car crushed by a boulder suddenly dislodged. These horrors happen.

Yes, but when we add one plus one plus one, we don't call three an accident. We call it a product, a sum, the result. And the Utah disaster wasn't random; it is the product of conditions just waiting to be added up.

Murray, a self-made millionaire, owns companies producing more than 20 million tons of coal annually. He's known as a hard-driving executive who pushes the limits in his mines, seeking to extract the last dime from the coal.

At Crandall Canyon, the miners were working at depths that test the limits of safety. Although Murray denies it, federal regulatory officials say that retreat mining was being practiced. Retreat mining is a perilous technique in which pillars of coal hold up portions of the roof, and when the area is mined, the pillars are pulled down, capturing the useful coal and collapsing the roof.

Even hard-driving mine owners aren't allowed to run amok. There are federal and state laws and regulations that help protect worker safety in the mines. But the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration isn't exactly a bulldog. The mine safety czar, Richard Stickler, a former coal company executive with a lousy safety record, was deemed so unfit for the post by Republican and Democratic senators alike that they wouldn't confirm him. So Bush appointed him on October 2006 when the Congress was in recess. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/dont_call_it_accident?tx=3

[AZBlue]

1. And now 172 trapped in China from a flood.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20328224/

Worldwide, mining safety laws and regulations need to be changed NOW. And then they MUST be enforced.

Any 08 candidates talking about this issue (other than to give condolences and prayers to the miners and their families)? Anyone talking about making changes?

[KittyWampus]

2. Those miners must not have died in vain. This is about regulating business, protecting worker

encouraging unions. All to promote safe conditions that help prevent tragedies.

[burrowowl]

4. Western Europe has very good mining regulations

And retreat mining is not allowed.
In Europe, the Utah mine owners would be on trail by now and soon in jail.

[liberal renegade]

3. Accidents don't happen, they're caused!

I think we know what caused this accident, don't we........