A recent accident in a mine in West Virginia has claimed the lives of at least eleven miners. This has left many of their friends and relatives in anger and disbelief at the total disregard for safety regulations and human lives displayed by both the state government and the company. It has now emerged that the call to emergency services was not made until about an hour and a half after the accident took place, wasting valuable time that could have been used to save the lives of the miners trapped underground.
What was worse, was that it took quite a few more hours (almost 40?!) for the rescue team to arrive and to begin entering the mine where the accident took place. Furthermore, many members of the miners’ families were first told that all twelve had been found alive when the truth was actually a lot worse. Hours after the good news somehow spread, the true extent of the death toll (eleven miners were killed and there was only one survivor) disappointed and angered many.
The mine has a long record of safety violations over the years. Last December alone it was found to have had eleven breaches of safety regulations. It can be assumed that breaches of safety regulations are now such common occurences that no one takes any notice anymore, until accidents take place. It can definitely be assumed that this mine is not the only one that breaches safety regulations on a regular basis.
In fact, with the endless drive for productivity being implemented across industries, safety regulations must be seen more and more as impediments to the increasing of exploitation and the extraction of profits by industry operators. This is the true reason for the increase in incidents of industrial accidents and fatalities.