West Virginia's Governor Joe Manchin stated today that he wants miners to return to work on Friday. But instead of mining coal on Friday he wants them all to take the day to re-evaluate safety procedures. The accident in the Big Branch Mine in Naoma killed 29 miners and proves to be the worst incident since 1972 when 91 miners died. Manchin wants everyone to work together to come up with better and safer working conditions in the mines. After all, he feels that safety is the number one concern. Upper Big Branch Mine, the part where the explosion took place, is closed until the investigation is complete. There have also been some interesting details leaked about the record of Massey Energy, the owner of the mine. Davitt McAteer, whose overseen other mine investigations, states that Massey Energy has a "checkered" record. Massey Energy also has a record of doing things the cheapest way. This way includes cutting corners and not following safety laws. In fact, just last year, Big Branch Mine got 450 citations.
This is a very tradgic event. My heart goes out to all the miners and their families that were involved in this event. Hopefully a lot of good can come out of this though. It's sad that, as Americans, we have to wait for a tradgedy before we can move forward. But since the collapsing happened, hopefully the governor will keep pushing until new safety regulations and equipment are created to prevent these things from happening in the future. It's the least we can do to honor the dead miners. Some of the new regulations could include federal inspectors checking on the mine shafts on a more regular basis. They also have to make sure that companies aren't cutting corners on safety. No amount of money is worth risking lives for.
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