Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Crushing Blow

All those earlier news reports that 12 of the 13 miners trapped in a West Virginia coal mine were found alive turned out to be wrong. 11 of the 12 miners were found dead, and the 12th miner was in critical condition this morning.

People are wondering how the hell the news could have gotten this wrong. I'm sure someone will look into that - when the inevitable lawsuits are filed and the parties are in the discovery phase.

Someone made a horrible mistake in transcribing conversations with search and rescue teams inside the mine and that mistake was compounded when it was relayed to the families. Just who exactly did relay that information and whether they were in a position to do so will also need to be investigated. It's quite likely an honest mistake, but one with an unusually cruel outcome.

Investigators will need to determine whether there were health and safety violations that played a role in the accident.

What doesn't change is that these miners died in a coal mining accident. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those killed at the Sago mine in Tallmansville, WV.

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