the export that fox interviewed yesterday said that 325 violations is a small number compared to most mines. the only question is where they doing reverse mining or not.

and they also said that they wouldn't know for sure about the quake until they got into where the men are trapped.

I'm going to have to rehash this one for y'all...some of you weren't here when the Sago disaster hit.

First off, infractions can be written up for a large number of things. It's easy to get infractions. You can get an infraction, for instance, for having gasoline at the mining level (occasionally used for cleaning parts, even though it is a no-no), because gasoline emissions don't meet the standards for an enclosed environment. The question is, WHAT were the infractions for? That makes all the difference in whether blame is to be assigned or not.

Second, there are some very serious issues with workplace enforcement. When I worked in the mines, we HAD an MSHA inspection. At the beginning of the shift, the foreman handed us a handful of red tags and told us to tag off all moving equipment. If it moved or was meant to move, it got red tagged. The miners who worked on the stopes were instructed to close off all stopes and mark them off. The idea was, they basically obstructed any legitimate inspection. But only the greenest of greenhorns would fall for that. After all, if every stope was closed off and every piece of equipment red tagged, what exactly were we doing? I find it unlikely to even begin to surmise that money wasn't changing hands somewhere.

See, underground mining is an extremely dangeous industry. If accidents of all categories are tallied, underground mining is the most dangerous profession. Crab fishing often takes top billing, because the majority of their deaths fall into a single category: drowning. But in mining, there are haulage deaths, falls, crushing deaths, electrocution...a whole number of nasty ways to die. Because of this, what the foreman says goes. You cannot go underground unless you have first been certified. And when you go underground, what the foreman says goes.

I would definitely wait before assigning blame on this one. It may not be terribly cut and dry.

Maybe the earthquake was due to low levels of vinegar and water in the owner. ;~D

I still stand by my "Bush's Fault" joke, earthquake or no.

I wouldn't stand by that fault, that sounds dangerous.

"I wouldn't stand by that fault, that sounds dangerous."

Argh. Groan. Choke. Death.

Actually, looking at that mine's worker injury/fatality record they were well above the national average for safety. It was one of the safest mines in the country.

I'm pretty sure Bush redirected the money from the ground support force field project and sent them to Iraq.

The 3.2 magnitude one we had here in Virginia.

I'm sure that was just Bush dropping the ball.

Have to be one heck of a big ball.

it belongs to cheney.

I thought Bush's fault was probed last week and pronounced clean, functioning and without blockage or blemish. ;~D