Tomblin proposes mine safety bill
From: The Register-Herald.com
By Mannix Porterfield
CHARLESTON — Tipping off an underground crew of an inspector’s arrival on coal mine property becomes a felony with a prison term of up to five years in Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s proposed comprehensive safety bill.
Offered Monday, the 54-page document also calls for pre-employment drug screens and demands quarterly checks of self-rescuers.
Tomblin made mine safety a major item in his State of the State address this month, citing the April 5, 2010, tragedy at a Raleigh County coal mine.
Twenty-nine miners perished in a massive explosion that shook the sprawling Upper Big Branch mine that day.
In the aftermath, the first criminal trial emanating from the worst mine accident in four decades centered on advance notice provided to inspectors. That was in federal court in Beckley, where the trial ended in the conviction of a former security chief.
