The search for the four miners still missing after Monday’s explosion at a coal mine in Montcoal, W.Va., has been postponed because of dangerous levels of methane gas inside the mine. The death toll has reached 25, making the blast at Upper Big Branch the worst at a U.S. mine since 1984, when a fire at a Utah mine killed 27 workers. An overhaul of mine safety laws followed four years later, according to The New York Times.
That overhaul, the first in over three decades, came after 19 miners died in a series of accidents in West Virginia and Kentucky — including one that brought criminal charges against a subsidiary of the Massey Energy Company, based in Virginia, the owner of the mine where Monday’s explosion took place.
… For at least six of the last 10 years, federal records indicate, the Upper Big Branch mine has recorded an injury rate worse than the national average for similar operations. The records also show that the mine had 458 violations in 2009, with $897,325 in safety penalties assessed against it, of which it has paid $168,393.
Read more in The Times. Ken Ward Jr., coal industry reporter at The Charleston Gazette, is tracking rescue efforts here.
[...] Mine Rescue Suspended As Death Toll Reaches 25 | Fairwarning By qneexeng The records also show that the mine had 458 violations in 2009, with $897325 in safety penalties assessed against it, of which it has paid $168393. Read more in The Times. Ken Ward Jr., coal industry reporter at The Charleston Gazette , …More Here [...]