May 22, 2012
Five Alpha foremen cited following W. Va. mine death
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Five foremen at an Alpha Natural Resources mine in Fayette County ignored dozens of safety violations, including the kind of poor mine wall stability that led to the death of a worker in March, state inspectors allege.

The state Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training on Tuesday released the "individual personal assessments," or IPAs, issued to the five foremen at Alpha subsidiary Kingston Mining's Kingston No. 2 Mine.

State inspectors cited mine foremen Roger Cantley and Steve Lafferty, assistant mine foremen James Law and Chris Patrick and foreman Donnie Hayhurst, according to state records.

State inspectors said that mine condition reports from the foremen at Kingston No. 2 did not reflect the actual conditions underground. Under state and federal law, foremen are required to conduct detailed mine inspections, note any problems they find and ensure that those problems are fixed before workers go underground.

In one instance at Kingston, mine reports said underground conditions were "safe," and there was "no mention of any unsafe" mine walls or ribs. State inspectors, though, found more than 30 different locations where unsafe mine rib conditions existed.

Alpha's Kingston Resources was cited Monday with 45 safety violations in the investigation of the March 10 mine wall collapse that killed 34-year-old section foreman Jeremy Sigler of Pool at the Kingston No. 2 Mine near Mossy.

The state citations included one that the state classified as deserving a "special assessment" -- a fine of $10,000 -- for not controlling the mine wall, or rib, in the area where Sigler was killed.

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