Ukrainian mine collapse kills 4 workers

Sydney Morning Herald

June 10, 2007

The incident occurred at the Yuvileyna mine in the eastern city of Kryviy Rih in the early hours of Saturday about 1,180 metres underground, the Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement.

The cause of the collapse was under investigation.

Ukrainian mines are among the world's most dangerous because of the high number of fatal accidents.

The mines are deep, use out-of-date equipment and maintain poor safety standards.

Last month, three miners were killed and 18 others injured in a methane gas explosion in the eastern Donetsk region.

WTRF - Wheeling,WV,USA
Story by D.K. Wright
June 12, 2007

St. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio -- Mine rescue teams from all over the eastern part of the nation are battling it out in the Ohio Valley Mine Rescue Contest.

WAUPUN — A local couple escaped serious injury after the car they were in fell over the edge of an abandoned stone quarry and crashed into the rocks below.

The driver of the vehicle, a 20-year-old Randolph man and his passenger, a 21-year-old rural Fond du Lac woman received minor injuries in the mishap that occurred on June 9 in the stone quarries owned by W&D Navis Trucking and Excavating, N2747 Highway 26, Waupun.

While out on patrol around 3:30 a.m., Waupun Police officers noted a large number of people in the area of Gateway Drive and Fond du Lac Street, near the abandoned stone quarries just east of the National Guard Armory and McCune Park, said Waupun Police Chief Dale Heeringa.

Upon further investigation, officers discovered a car trapped in the rocks below a rocky precipice.

“They were extremely lucky that this was the smallest cliff,” Heeringa said. “Some of these cliffs around the quarry are 30- to 50-feet up in the air and the quarries below are filled with water of varying depths.”

Heeringa believes the driver entered the quarry area through an unlocked gate. The quarries — known as the old Howard’s Quarry — have been the site of numerous drownings over the years.

“Every year we have problems in the summertime. People don’t realize the danger lying below the surface of the water with submerged rocks and cables just to name a few,” Heeringa said. “The couple in the car was lucky. It could have been a lot worse.”

Charges of operating while intoxicated are pending, and Heeringa said the ongoing investigation could produce additional charges.

___________________________________________________________
United States Mine Rescue Association
www.usmra.com

Does anyone recall the home video from several years ago showing some Marines going into a mine in Nevada with a fatal result. If so, any clues to a copy of the video. Am teaching an Abandoned Mine class soon and had my copy "lifted".

Thanks.

Tim Kovacs
tkovacs@...
www.mcsomr.org
www.phoenix.gov/fire
www.mra.org
www.mountainrescuehonorguard.org

I had one but left it at work when I left.  Give John Cool at PA Mine Safety a call at 724-429-7303 or email jcool@....

He's reading this so you won't need a lengthy intro.

Stay Out and Stay Alive!

Rob

--- In MineRescue@yahoogroups.com, "Tim Kovacs" <tkovacs@...> wrote:
>
> Does anyone recall the home video from several years ago showing some
> Marines going into a mine in Nevada with a fatal result. If so, any clues to
> a copy of the video. Am teaching an Abandoned Mine class soon and had my
> copy "lifted".
>
> Thanks.
>
> Tim Kovacs
> tkovacs@...
> www.mcsomr.org
> www.phoenix.gov/fire
> www.mra.org
> www.mountainrescuehonorguard.org
>

ARLINGTON, Va., June 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) today announced that eight mine operators from around the country have received letters putting them on notice that each has a potential pattern of violations of mandatory health or safety standards under section 104(e) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. These eight operations represent the first mines to receive such letters under MSHA's enhanced enforcement initiative and, if ultimately issued a pattern of violations notice, would be the first in the history of the agency to be sanctioned as having a pattern of violations.

"The purpose of these letters is to put mine operators on notice about the repercussions they face if they repeatedly disregard mine safety and health regulations," said Richard E. Stickler, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "The ultimate goal is to restore effective safe and healthy conditions at these mines, and MSHA will not hesitate to use all the tools available to ensure compliance with the law."

A mine operator that has a potential pattern of recurrent significant and substantial (S&S) violations at a mine will receive written notification from MSHA. An S&S violation is one which could reasonably be expected to lead to a serious injury or illness. The operator will have an opportunity to review and comment on the documents upon which the potential pattern of violations is based, and develop a written corrective action plan to reduce S&S violations at the mine and to avoid violations caused by imminent dangers, failure to abate previously cited violations, and unwarrantable failures to comply with standards.

MSHA will closely monitor the affected mine's compliance record during the ensuing 90 days. If the operator significantly reduces its violation frequency rate, it can avoid being issued a Notice of a Pattern of Violations. If the improvement falls short of the criteria, MSHA will issue the notice. For each S&S violation found, MSHA will issue an order withdrawing miners from the affected area until the cited condition has been corrected. An operator can be removed from a pattern of violations when 1) an inspection of the entire mine is completed and no S&S violations are found or 2) no withdrawal order is issued by MSHA in accordance with Section 104 (e)(1) of the Mine Act within 90 days of the issuance of the pattern notice.

MSHA used data from the most recent eight quarters to determine an active mine operation's eligibility for notification of a potential pattern of violations.

U.S. Department of Labor releases are accessible on the Internet at http://www.dol.gov/. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office upon request. Please specify which news release when placing your request at (202) 693-7828 or TTY (202) 693-7755. The Labor Department is committed to providing America's employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit http://www.dol.gov/compliance. U.S. Department of Labor

CONTACT: Amy Louviere, +1-202-693-9423, or Dirk Fillpot,
+1-202-693-9406, both of the U.S. Department of Labor

Web site: http://www.dol.gov/

As an amateur historian focusing on the labor history of Colorado miners, i sometimes get requests for information relating to mining disasters. For example, i'm currently helping an individual seeking information about the Hastings explosion in 1917 which took the lives of 121 men. His grandfather was killed, and his mother lost track of her own mother, the deceased's spouse, after the tragedy. For many such searches, the family members don't have any idea where to start looking. 

 

It is great that folks are writing books about some of these events. However, such books tend to be low-circulation, and  for far-flung relatives, they may not be easy to locate.

 

I'd like to encourage folks who are interested in these issues to use Wikipedia as a framework for the history. In a sense this is self-publishing, at very little or no cost, potentially with a worldwide audience. There are existing articles that cover some of the disasters, but the quality varies, and there is much yet to be included. Anyone can do the research and editing.

 

There is one enormous advantage to using Wikipedia for this purpose. It is currently the number nine website in the world, measured by traffic. This means that any web search for a particular disaster is very likely to link to the Wikipedia article first (if such exists.) Therefore, the information is very accessible to anyone looking for it.

 

I include, below, a few links that give a sense of what is currently available, and what might be possible. Remember, if there are errors or missing details in this information, any or all of us can get involved to make corrections.

 

best wishes,

richard myers

Denver, Colorado  

---

List of mining disasters

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disasters#Mining_disasters

 

About mining disasters

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_disasters

 

Mining disasters by category

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mining_disasters

 

Mining disasters in the United States

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mining_disasters_in_the_United_States

 

 

Friday was the first anniversary of President Bush's signing of the MINER Act, the nation's first major coal-mine safety law in years.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. Va., marked the milestone by pressing the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration to speed up implementation of the measure.

"We have seen some progress, but too many delays," he said in a statement. "The longer there are delays in implementing the new federal standards, the longer coal miners' lives are placed needlessly at risk."

The law was passed after fatal accidents at the Kentucky Darby Mine No. 1 in Harlan County and West Virginia's Sago and Alma mines.

Byrd wants MSHA chief Richard Stickler to update him on where the agency stands regarding installation of underground communications systems and increasing oxygen supplies. He also is concerned about what MSHA will do with weaker mine seals installed before the agency made the construction standards much tougher.

MSHA released its own scorecard on Friday, saying the agency has taken 14 significant steps on safety since the law was signed. Some of the actions were required by the law, some were not connected to it.

Calling it the most significant mine-safety law in almost three decades, Stickler said in a statement that "we at MSHA are fully committed to putting its protections in place for America's miners."

Stickler said MSHA had made "great strides" in implementing the law, "and we are continuing to meet or beat the deadlines set by the act."

CHARLESTON - The family of a miner killed in last year's Sago Mine accident filed a suit against the CEO of the mine's parent company, claiming they suffered emotional distress.

The family of Thomas Anderson filed a suit June 7 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Bennett K. Hatfield, the chief executive of International Coal Group, the company that owns Sago Mine.

The suit, filed by attorney Paul M. Stroebel, is on behalf of Anderson's father, one sister and four brothers.

Anderson is one of 12 miners who died underground in the Sago Mine, after an explosion Jan. 2, 2006.

According to the suit, from Jan. 2 to Jan. 4, 2006, the family waited in the church located by the mine, where they were presented with false information about Anderson.

The suit also says Hatfield and ICG told the family false and misleading information, including the condition of Anderson and whether he was still alive.

The conduct of the defendants was "extreme, outrageous, beyond the bounds of decency, atrocious, and intolerable such that it was substantially certain that emotional distress would result," the suit says.

The family seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Wolf Run Mining Co., also known as Anker West Virginia Mining Co., is also named as a defendant. The case has been assigned to Judge James Stucky.

This is the second suit filed on behalf on Anderson's family. In November, a civil suit was filed on behalf of his estate and family. The suit also named ICG and Wolf Run as defendants, as well as Burrell Mining Products; Raleigh Mine and Industrial Supply; CSE Corp.; and GMS Mine Repair and Maintenance.