Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 26, 1993 TAG: 9302260345
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORTON LENGTH: Medium
RELEASE OF INFORMATION `PREMATURE'
The chairman of Gov. Douglas Wilder's task force to investigate the Southmountain mine disaster criticized the former head of the federal mine safety administration Thursday for prematurely releasing information that made it look as though the miners who died caused the explosion by smoking."I was somewhat amazed at the announcement. . . . I just thought that was premature," Chairman Jim Robinson said during the task force's second meeting.
Robinson was referring to a news conference two weeks after the Dec. 7 explosion during which Bill Tattersall, head of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, revealed that some of the eight miners killed at Southmountain Coal Mine No. 3 may have been smoking. He also revealed that a special methane detector had been blocked with a rag.
Tattersall had said he was taking the unusual step of releasing investigative evidence early because he felt the flagrant violations necessitated a nationwide mine safety alert.
Tom Brown, an MSHA spokesman, said Thursday that the federal agency still stands by Tatersall's decision to release the information. Brown said Tattersall, who has left as MSHA head with the change in presidential administrations, did not specifically blame the explosion on the miners, but was shocked that the miners had taken smoking materials underground. He felt it was MSHA's duty to warn the mining industry.
Angry members of the dead miners' families have since accused Tattersall and federal and state inspectors of making it look as though the miners were to blame before completing their investigation.
Robinson, a former state delegate from Pound, told family members attending the task force meeting Thursday that he agrees it's wrong to release such incomplete investigative evidence.
"It was premature. . . . I don't make any bones about it," he said.
One of the major goals Wilder set for the task force is to recommend ways to improve the way mine disasters are investigated.
Liz Mullins, the widow of Mike Mullins, one of the men killed in the December accident, said Tattersall told her and other family members on the day that seven of the bodies were found that cigarettes been found on and around some of the miners.
"They was acting like somebody lit a cigarette and it blowed up. I'm not saying they should have smoked underground, but that's not what caused it. What caused it is how all that methane built up."
Max Kennedy, a United Mine Workers of America representative on the task force, agreed. He said that while smoking underground is strictly forbidden, the investigation should focus on what went wrong to allow explosive levels of methane to build up in a mine that state inspectors considered nongassy.
The task force's meeting Thursday was interrupted several times by family members demanding to know what happened. They also accused state and federal mine inspectors of having failed to properly inspect the mine in time to prevent the explosion.
A woman, who identified herself as the mother of dead miner David Carlton, yelled out, "If the state and federal inspectors had done their job right, this accident wouldn't have happened and I'd still have my son."
Robinson said he had wanted the task force to approve some preliminary recommendations. But most of the nine other members of the task force agreed that they didn't have enough information to act and wanted to wait for a full briefing on the investigation.
State mine inspectors are expected to have their investigative findings completed by March 22. Robinson said the task force would meet March 30 to hear the report and question investigators.
Keywords:
FATALITY
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.