Poor design lead to deaths of six miners, three rescue workers
The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced today that it submitted a settlement between itself and Agapito Associates Inc. in the August 2007 Crandall Canyon Mine disaster to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. Under the settlement agreement, the mining engineering consulting firm accepted responsibility and agreed to pay $100,000 for a high negligence violation for its role in the mine collapse that killed six miners and three rescue workers at Genwal Resources Inc.'s underground coal mine in Emery County, Utah.
According to MSHA's investigation, the miners were killed when roof-supporting coal pillars collapsed in a catastrophic outburst that violently ejected coal over a half-mile area in the underground mine tunnels. Ten days later, two mine employees and an MSHA inspector died in another coal outburst that occurred during rescue efforts.