Scotia: The Mine That Killed the Men Investigating It

Описание: Scotia: The Mine That Killed the Men Investigating It

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On March 9th, 1976, a methane explosion killed fifteen miners at the Scotia Coal Company mine in Letcher County, Kentucky. Two nights later, the men sent back in to find out what had gone wrong - eight coal miners and three federal mine inspectors - were killed by a second explosion, in the same place, in the same way.

The mine had been cited for ventilation violations sixty-two times in two years and shut down by federal order a hundred and ten times. A federal inspector had signed off on the ventilation the night before the first blast.

This is the record of what the federal investigation found inside Scotia's own ventilation plan, the two lawsuits that followed - one civil, one criminal - and the law Congress wrote because of the men who died going back in: the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.

Every figure here comes from the federal investigation report, the Senate committee report on the 1977 Act, and the court record of the two cases that followed.

The Appalachian Record - the record, not the stereotype.

Sources
U.S. Bureau of Mines / MESA, Scotia Mine disaster investigation report (1976)
S. Rept. 95-181, Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977
Boggs v. Blue Diamond Coal Co., 590 F.2d 655 (6th Cir. 1979)
United States v. Blue Diamond Coal Co., 667 F.2d 510 (6th Cir. 1982)
CDC/NIOSH, "From Scotia to Brookwood" (2008)
Kentucky Historical Society, Marker #2314, Oven Fork

Credits
"US Capitol dome Jan 2006.jpg" by Diliff, CC BY 2.5
"Frances Perkins Building of the United States Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. - 1.jpg" by US Department of Labor, CC BY 2.0
"Cumberland Gap Pinnacles Overlook 2025b.jpg" by Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0
"Middlesboro, Kentucky from Pinnacle Overlook, Cumberland Gap, VA.jpg" by w_lemay, CC BY-SA 2.0
"Black Mountain Kentucky road 1.jpg" by Fredlyfish4, CC BY-SA 4.0
"Coal mining in Illinois (1915) (14774450571).jpg" by Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions
"Coal mining in Illinois (1915) (14591111707).jpg" by Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions