Death Destruction and Disaster in the American Coal Mining Industry (2001)

Introduction

There is no question that present day thought is veering toward the prevention of fatal injuries in all walks of life, including the coal industry; especially in the areas of Southern West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia where fatal injuries are running rampant.  The more the subject of safety is considered and analyzed, the more it is known that safe methods, safe practices, and safe equipment are advantageous to the workers, to the employer, the mining industry and the public.  Safety is advantageous from the altruistic viewpoint and the cold-blooded and practical one of dollars and cents.  Our worker compensation laws strive to provide equity for the industry, as well as the workers and their dependents.  This is as it should be for there is no question that life and limb are the most valued possessions of human beings.  There is no doubt the financial or pecuniary cost of injuries and deaths are heavy in mining, and this cost must be borne temporarily by industry which, in most cases, will ultimately place the burden upon the American consumer.  The direct and indirect cost of death, destruction, and disasters in the industry may be inferred as a substantial percentage of the total cost to the operator of putting coal onto the conveyor belts at the mine.  Experts on industrial safety, almost unanimously, agree that safety achievement is wholly a function of the attitude of a company’s operating officials.  It seems apparent that due to the failure of those officials, who are in charge of coal mining, to do their duty in curbing accidents, the industry is suffering an unnecessary expense.  This expense amounts to a sizeable and growing percentage of the total cost of production.  It has become apparent the curtailment in the occurrence, and the cost of accidents may well result in a black rather than a red bottom line on company balance sheets.  Vast amounts of information are available in the year 2001 that indicate those in charge of our mining organizations have within their power the curtailment – in fact, almost the elimination of accidents.  With accident reductions, there will come a corresponding curtailment of the cost of accidents accompanied with an increase in production and efficiency.  Investments in health and safety reap double benefits.  With these things in mind, it is time for mine managers and operators throughout the country to “wake-up” to the idea and possibilities of a personally and effectively directed accident prevention program. 

Most of the burden for the expense of coal-mine injuries is placed upon the company’s shoulder by worker compensation laws.  The protection of life and limb of its workers are placed upon every industry by both law and public opinion.  Managers of operations must be forced into accident prevention work if they are unwilling to do so on a volunteer basis.  They must be made to prosecute safety, not only to protect the company for which they work, but to create opportunities and protection for themselves.

The functions of corporate executives in accident prevention work are both numerous and complex.  If, however, they are logical in their powers of reasoning, they will quickly see that before the company can consistently ask or even expect its workers to heed their safety suggestions, they must “put their own house in order” by formulating a concrete and definite safety program.  This includes primarily the adoption of a logical method of mining coal.  This includes installation of safe equipment that fits the coal seam, the establishment of safe mining practices, the development of a printed safety manual that lists minimum safety requirements, the creation of company policies that will provide a means of promotion, implementation and perpetual improvement of its safety program, and the organization of its entire workforce, salary and hourly employees alike, into a accident prevention body.  Each employee of the company and the job they perform must be recognized as necessary and important to the company’s existence.  As such, each employee, being part of a whole, must be given an equal opportunity and the authority of making the operation a safe place at which to work by making certain everyone adheres to the company’s safety regulations.  Procedures must be set in place such that objective enforcement is designed to create a positive change in behavior through discipline and not the punishment of workforce members.

After the company has its affairs so arranged that it can go to its workers with “clean hands” in forwarding a safety program, we can begin the real work for safety in our coal industry. 

It is the general opinion that the miner, and especially the seasoned old-timer, is the most competent person to determine what should be done to protect him.  This fallacy is responsible for many accidents.  Another fallacy that impacts the industry is the idea that mining is inherently dangerous and as long as we mine coal many accidents must occur and they must be severe in nature and effect.  Although it has been improving to some extent through the end of the century, the miner is usually of limited education and breath of vision.  For the most part, the miner reads little or no mining technical literature and attends few if any meetings of mining men that are interested in mine safety and well informed about the safety aspects of mining.  Their mining knowledge is often limited only to what they have acquired through personal experience.  To add insult to injury, the effect of what is gained is marred through the lack of ability to interpret the data available to them through expe