15 Minutes

Mine safety:

BOULDER, Colo. -- Although the anguish and anger remain raw from January's fatal accidents at the Sago and Aracoma mines in West Virginia, the coal industry wants to roll back or amend most of the federal emergency rescue rules adopted in response to them.

In testimony over the past month at four federal Mine Safety and Health Administration hearings around the country, industry officials and lobbyists offered condolences to the families of the 14 miners who lost their lives in January and voiced general support for safer mining practices, but they challenged the core provisions of the emergency rules aimed at helping miners escape after an underground fire or explosion.

The principle new rule is that mine owners be required to notify the Mine Safety and Health Administration of a "serious" accident within fifteen minutes. The mine owners don't like that rule:

Bruce Watzman, the National Mining Association's vice president for safety and health, testified that MSHA was notified last year of 2,400 immediately reportable accidents, but that approximately 90 percent did not involve an injury.

"The agency's statistics disclose the real possibility of being overwhelmed by the 15-minute notification requirement for accidents where a real emergency does not exist," Mr. Watzman said.

Is that a fact, Mr. Watzman? How about this:

Three of the five miners killed in an explosion in an eastern Kentucky coal mine likely survived the initial blast but died of carbon monoxide poisoning, a coroner said Sunday based on preliminary autopsy results.

Those fifteen minutes might have helped save some lives, Mr. Watzman. But you're more concerned with saving your industry embrassment and, of course, protecting profits.

It must be nice to be utterly without conscience.


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