WHARTON, W.Va. (AP) — Two miners killed inside a coal mine
worked for a company that had so many safety problems federal officials
deemed it a "pattern violator," a rare designation reserved for the
industry’s worst offenders.
Brody Mine No. 1 was one of only three
mines last year to earn the label that regulators have put greater
emphasis on since the 2010 Upper Big Branch explosion killed 29 miners
about 10 miles away. The designation subjects the mine to greater
scrutiny from regulators.
Brody No. 1 is owned by a subsidiary of
St. Louis-based Patriot Coal, which in its annual report last December
blamed the problems on a previous owner and said it was "vigorously
contesting" the designation.
The workers at Brody No. 1 were
killed when the floor collapsed Monday night during a coal burst, a
violent failure of a roof, pillar or wall of coal along a passage inside
the mine, according to the company and state and federal officials.
Coal bursts have been a hazard for decades.
The burst occurred
during retreat mining operations — when pillars that support the roof
are collapsed and removed from a mined area. Once the entire mine has
collapsed, it is abandoned.
In October, Brody No. 1 was one of
three coal mines added to a Pattern of Violations list for repeatedly
breaking federal health and safety regulations over the previous year.
It was cited for 253 serious violations.
The designation is one of
MSHA’s toughest enforcement actions, reserved for operations that pose
the greatest threat to workers’ lives. It also meant that if a federal
inspector were to find another significant violation, an order would be
issued to withdraw miners from a specific area, effectively ceasing
operations until the problem is corrected there.
Asked for comment
on its safety record, a Patriot Coal spokeswoman referred to the
company’s latest annual report. Patriot’s subsidiary purchased the mine
Dec. 31, 2012.
But from April 1, 2013, to March 31 of this year,
the mine was cited for 192 safety violations, including 33 for high or
reckless disregard for miners’ health and safety.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether any of the violations could have had anything to do with a coal
burst.
Since
January, six accidents have occurred at Brody No. 1, including one in
which a miner’s finger was caught in machinery and a portion had to be
amputated, according to online federal records.
The Mine Safety
and Health Administration has taken several steps to improve its
enforcement of safety regulations after the Upper Big Branch explosion,
the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in 40 years. Among them: impact
inspections of problem mines, such as Brody No. 1, and "Rules to Live
By."
In January, the agency announced it had addressed the 100
recommendations published in a 2012 report by a team of experts
appointed by then-Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and the National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health.
Last week, MSHA reported that eight miners died in accidents in the first three months of 2014.
Brody
No. 1 is located off a two-lane road that winds through lush,
tree-covered mountains. Pockets of modest one-story houses and mobile
homes sit in clusters on small patches of flat land along the road.
While the mine is about 10 miles away from the shuttered Upper Big
Branch, it would take more than an hour to drive from one to the other.
Brody No. 1 employs about 270 workers. Killed were Gary P. Hensley, 46, of Chapmanville, and Eric D.
Legg, 48, of Twilight.
Robert
Rash, chief of the Wharton-Barrett Volunteer Fire Department, said Legg
became a coal miner after he graduated from high school.
"That’s all that’s around here, actually. Deep mine and strip mine," Rash said.
Barry
Brown, Legg’s friend and a former co-worker, said Legg was going to
start a new job later this week at Patriot’s Big Mountain Mine. He was a
good worker who loved to hunt and fish.
"He was like a brother to
me. Me and him, we did a lot together," Brown said. "Every boss wanted
him on their section because he was a good guy. He could do anything in
the coal mines."
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