industry can regulate themselves

[mattkime]

Feds Reveal Theory On Why W.Va. Mine Exploded

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/19/133020031/...oded?sc=fb&cc=fp

[OWC Jamie]

[RgrF]

Makes American mine operators look third world, at when compared to Chilean mine operators.

[OWC Jamie]

Because Chile didn't depend on an American drill team with a NASA design to get miners out of a mine when their own didn't work ?

[cbelt3]

Yes, it's sad. The operator laughed at safety. The miners went and did the job. Mining is just damn dangerous. Coal mining... jeezo, even worse.


Can you imagine going to your first day on the job and being told "Boys, this job WILL kill you. It's just a matter of how. If you're lucky, you'll live a long time and die of black lung. If you're REALLY luck you'll get just a little bit hurt early on and not be able to go back into the mine."

The week I spent on an engineering project in a (pretty well and safely run) coal mine in Tennessee was hell. And I'd been in all kinds of nasty environments before that.

[$tevie]

But people have known coal dust is explosive since like forever. This is incredibly irresponsible and just plain stupid. The miners must have realized it as well but opted to work rather than to be safe: a bad choice but also a choice they shouldn't have to make with today's technology. Everyone involved rates a big fat F on this one.

[Lux Interior]

$tevie wrote:
Everyone involved rates a big fat F on this one.

I agree with billb; speeders & NASA are to blame.