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