West Virginia mining accident and reporting

[Alex]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

I simply don't know if this recent accident (which I believe are the only mining deaths during the last 5 years) have affected the statistics one way or the other.

According to the Emergency Disaster Database, on 23 September 2001 there was an explosion at the Blue Creek No. 5 coal mine in Alabama which killed 13 people (obvious lesson from combining that event and this: never allow 13 people into a mine at the same time).

That is the only other mining incident listed in the database since 1990. Combined, these two incidents are as deadly as an explosion at a chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina, in September 1991 which killed 25 people (obvious lesson from that event is that terrorists are chicken).



Me, until I'm given specific reason to think otherwise I generally start on the assumption that if you wait long enough, **** will happen. After the fact there will always be somebody to blame for that **** that happened, but that doesn't always mean that the **** was avoidable.

I've paid zero attention to the specifics of this situation (because, frankly, I don't really care about a mining accident in West Virginia). I'm sure someone was to blame, I'm sure they will be sued (as well as many people with money that aren't particularly to blame) and that the memo from Bush to Cheney that says "kill the mother****ing miners" will mysteriously disappear.