Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 13, 1995 TAG: 9509130070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ABINGDON LENGTH: Medium
William Ridley Elkins, 52, who the government claimed secretly ran the coal mine, was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $5,000 for falsifying documents relating to operation of the mine.
Kenneth Brooks received three months' community confinement, which will be served in a halfway house; one year's probation; and a $5,000 fine, for falsifying company safety records.
Both men had signed plea agreements with the government that dropped some of the charges against them, and Brooks cooperated in the prosecution of other company officials, which reduced his potential sentence.
U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson said "a systematic companywide failure" to maintain the Wise County mine safely led to the December 1992 explosion that killed eight workers.
Brooks, the night foreman at Southmountain Coal's No.3 mine, was supposed to conduct a pre-shift safety exam before he got off work at midnight Dec. 7, 1992, the day of the explosion. Instead, he filled out the form saying he had completed the exam when he hadn't, leaving a dangerous level of methane in the mine undetected.
Brooks also admitted smoking with his workers underground, a violation of federal law. The explosion was touched off by a miner's cigarette lighter. The naturally occurring methane had been allowed to accumulate through a pattern of company negligence including unmade safety checks and falsified records.
"The pre-shift exam on December 6 - had it been done, it could have prevented the explosion and the loss of eight lives," said James Crawford, an attorney from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Brooks' lying on safety exams was a "systematic violation that, over the long run, contributed to the buildup of methane," Crawford said.
Elkins, who had been banned from operating a mine, secretly ran Southmountain's No.3 mine, the government maintains, passing himself off as merely a consultant.
Wilson agreed that Elkins was in charge of the mine. But the judge said the government - which had hoped for a two-year sentence - failed to prove that he obstructed justice or otherwise deserved a longer sentence.
"We're satisfied," said James Crawford, an attorney from the U.S. Department of Labor. "It sends a message to the public and the mining industry because it says the person in charge ... will be held responsible and can't hide behind paper."
Stanley Blankenship, a special agent for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, testified that while Elkins falsified only ownership records, not safety records, it set a "bad example" for his employees. He also said Elkins failed to act on information that safety checks hadn't been done.
"He had control of the mine and could do something about it," Blankenship said. "It's not illegal to have methane in a mine, it's illegal to do nothing about it."
The parent company of the now-defunct Southmountain Coal Co. in April agreed to pay a $1.2 million fine and $900,000 into a trust for the children of the dead miners. Three other company officials were sentenced earlier, with punishments ranging from probation to 12 months in prison.
Keywords:
FATALITY
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.