U.S. investigators found “flagrant violations” at a Pennsylvania mine where a worker died in a methane gas explosion last year, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration said in a report released Monday.R&D Coal Co. became the first operator cited for flagrant violations under new U.S. mine-safety rules that boost fines to as much as $220,000. Congress approved the harsher fines last year after several mine fatalities, including the deaths of 12 men at West Virginia’s Sago mine.
The miners conducting the blasting that day were not qualified to handle explosives, and set them off before miners could get to a safe area, investigators found.
R&D also lacked adequate ventilation, safe blasting practices and proper pre-shift safety checks at its Buck Mountain Slope Mine, directly contributing to the Oct. 23 death of Dale Reightler, 43, federal officials said.
“R&D Coal Co. Inc. failed to observe basic mine safety practices and violated critical safety standards. As a result, a miner tragically lost his life,” said Richard E. Stickler, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health.
State regulators have revoked R&D’s permit to operate the Buck Mountain site. They said the company’s alleged cover-up of a similar 2004 blast that injured four workers might have contributed to Reightler’s death.
A listed phone number for the company was not in operation Monday, and R&D officers did not immediately return messages left at their homes.
Reightler’s wife did not immediately return a message on Monday.