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John Hollenhorst ReportingTragedy a half mile down. A Carbon County coal miner died late Sunday night when flying chunks of coal hit him. The incident has triggered grief in his family and his close knit community of Helper. And it raises the question, again, of whether coal companies are allowing mines to become unsafe places to work.
The accident follows well-publicized coal mine accidents in the Eastern United States. Company officials say it's just a coincidence of timing. But critics say it's a symptom of the Bush administration giving coal companies a free ride on safety.
Thirty-seven-year old Shane Jacobson was killed when he was struck by chunks of coal that flew violently off the face of a coal seam. It happened at the Aberdeen mine near Price.
The sense of loss in Helper is pretty strong right now. Shane Jacobson was well liked and very well-known in the tight knit community of miners. Like everyone else who goes underground to earn a living, he knew the work could turn deadly in an instant.
The Aberdeen Mine is one of the country's deepest and it was more than a half-mile below the ground that trouble struck about 11 pm Sunday night. Workers were running a longwall mining operation, in which a huge machine grinds along a coal face that's 750 feet long. Sometimes, as a cavity opens up behind the machine, downward pressure on the coal causes enormous stress. Veteran miners like Willie Ellington say that under some conditions, chunks of coal can explode off the wall violently.
Willie Ellington, Coal Miner: "And that's the kind of force it has. It will blow you down. I hear of fellow workers say when that pressure comes off, it knocks them right down."
When that happened Sunday night, 37-year-old Shane Jacobson was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Doug Smith, President, Andalex Resources Inc.: "He was struck by coal horizontally coming across from the face, so it struck him and fatally injured him."
By all accounts, Jacobson was well-known for his friendly, outgoing nature. Miners say he was a man to be counted on. His widow says he knew his work could be dangerous, but he went to work to make a good life for his family.
Wende Jacobson, Miner's widow: "It's just coal mines, it's just the way it is. It's not that it was unusually dangerous, it's just the way coal mines are."
The mine is closed now out of respect for Jacobson and also because a federal investigation is getting underway. The mine does have a safety record that has raised some eyebrows.
Federal agencies did not return our phone calls. But the Salt Lake Tribune two weeks ago reported numerous safety violations at the Aberdeen mine. Inspectors noted at least 290 in the last two years, 184 of them "significant and substantial."
Mike Dalpiaz, United Mine Workers of America: "That mine is no different than any other mine, because what's happening is safety is secondary now with the coal industry."
Union official Mike Dalpiaz says the Bush administration has allowed mining companies to take over the Mine Safety Agency, which means fewer inspectors, little followup, lax enforcement.
Mike Dalpiaz, United Mine Workers of America: "You know, it's kind of like letting the fox guard chickens is exactly what's going on."
Others defend the companies.
Willie Ellington, Coal Miner: "I really think that the mines are as safe as you want to be. We have real good safety programs and they stress that a lot."
Doug Smith, President, Andalex Resources Inc.: "Well, the mining industry in the United States had its safest year in history this last year."
As a contrast, a Canadian mine averted disaster over the weekend. During a fire, dozens of Canadian miners were able to take shelter in specially created safe-rooms. Those aren't required in the U.S., and the mines don't have them.
