Disaster Farmington

As MSHA states (MSHA 1999), the death of 222 miners in 1967, 311 in 1968, the Farmington disaster, and the death of over 170 miners in non-disaster type accidents since Farmington now surrounds the consideration of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 (Public Law 91-173). Seventy-eight miners died in the Farmington, West Virginia, explosion, which galvanized Congress to take swift action. MSHA summarizes the major provisions of the 1969 act as follows ... 

Over time, however, even well-regulated systems fail. The most carefully constructed tunnels are subject to erosion, subsidence, and wear. Roof supports eventually fail. Metals corrode. Mines are dynamic systems that cannot continue to operate on the same course forever. If workers and management become complacent in the absence of any perceived hazard, they may begin to take short-cuts, cutting the margin of safety until they reach disastrous levels. The series of mine disasters that culminated in the Farmington disaster... 

In 1968, 78 coal miners were killed in Farmington, West Virginia, when an explosion ripped through the Consolidated Coal Company Mine. Only a few miles from the infamous Monongah site, this disaster devastated the whole community. A town, a state, and a nation were outraged and called for federal intervention into the conditions killing citizens in the workplace. 

There have been three legislative initiatives in the United States since the Depression, each immediately following a major disaster the 1941 Mines Inspection Act followed an explosion in West Virginia which killed 91 miners the 1952 Federal Coal Mine Act followed an Illinois explosion which claimed 119 lives and the 1969 Coal Mine Safety and Health Act followed the Farmington, West Virginia explosion in which 78 died (Braithwaite 1985, p. 78). Fatality rates declined sharply after the passage of the 1941 Act. They remained on a plateau after the passage of the 1952 Act but... 

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