The Law Works Special - The Upper Big Branch Coal Mine Investigation

On April 5, 2010, twenty-nine coal miners died in the explosion of the Upper Big Branch Mine, the worst United States coal mine accident in nearly forty years. As a result, then Governor Joe Manchin asked the former head of the Mine Safety and Heath Administration, Davitt McAteer, to conduct an independent investigation.

[@michaelcox5166]

This is one of the best jobs of interviewing I have ever seen.

[@MrWeaselwork]

A similar thing happened in NZ around the same time at the Pike River Mine. The workers calls for safety equipment that worked fell on deaf (management) ears. Such a waste of life.

[@01citizen]

Joe Manchin caused it. McAteer's report calls to end the "cozy relationship" between high gov. officials and coal operators. stating: “It is only in the context of a culture bent on production at the expense of safety that these obvious deviations from decades of known safety practices makes sense.“ he condemns the state of WV's unwillingness to protect miners, calling it “a political failure - a failure by the state’s government to nurture and support strict safety standards for coal miners!"

[@jamiewyatt1862]

Why did msha force Ubb to implement a ventilation plan that reduced airflow below their normal cfm ?

[@charleschris4123]

He is lying on the air requirement. Government told him he had too much air even though the main engineer said we needed more. Also they tried to tell them that this area wasn’t rock dust it well of course after an explosion the dusting is going to be blown away.

[@neilwyatt7471]

Mcateer has no idea he must work from a book

[@jayman5628]

Maybe this wouldn’t of happend if MSHA would have let them keep the original ventilation fan.

[@DL541]

Using the 5th Amendment is not refusing to cooperate.

[@Don-em4kc]

Mine it union or don't mine it

[@CC-jj7ne]

If $60k is the annual salary for an average coal mine laborer, that is chicken feed. If $60k is that salary, an engineer isn’t going to be making much more. Who would want to pay to go to school and study there butts off, run up a personal debt just to get a $100k job. That may be good money in some parts of the country. But that’s low pay when compared to other industries across the country. We are past the turn of the century and we are still killing men routinely in the mining industry. That is simply inhumane. Coal mining companies are trash in my opinion.