ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270095
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
An administrative law judge has cleared the operators of a Giles County limestone mine of a safety citation and a $50,000 fine in connection with a 1993 fatal mining accident.
The judge ruled Feb. 9 that APG Lime Corp. had done all it could to prevent the Sept. 9, 1993, accident that killed Brian Keith Ratcliffe, 28, of Pearisburg, and Timothy Wayne Francis, 41, of Peterstown, W.Va.
The miners died when a slab of rock -122 feet long, 22 feet wide and 9 feet thick - sheared away from the ceiling and crushed them as they operated a piece of mining equipment called a twin-boom jumbo drill.
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration cited and fined APG Lime for failure to adequately support the mining chamber. That allowed the roof, which had been weakened by a vein of calcite containing gaps, to fall, the federal agency alleged.
But the judge, T. Todd Hodgdon, disagreed that the company had done anything wrong. The evidence presented by federal investigators did not support their conclusions, Hodgdon wrote, and nothing leading up to the rock fall indicated that more support was necessary.
APG has worked the Kimballton mine, located below Butt Mountain and beside Stony Creek northeast of Pearisburg, for more than 45 years. In that time the mine had never experienced that magnitude of a rock fall - estimated at 150 tons - though miners routinely ran across calcite seams.
In this case, miners first noticed the calcite seam two days before the fall. After trying and failing to use pry bars to dislodge rock from the seam, the miners notified their foreman. The foreman and a crew of five miners then spent three hours trying to dislodge more rock from the seam. That failed, too. Moreover, the roof showed no signs of being dangerous, such as water or mud seepage, a hollow sound when tapped, or sounds of shifting, the judge wrote.
"It is significant that the only people who observed the calcite seam, the miners, were unanimous in their opinion that it was safe," Hodgdon wrote.
His conclusions echo what APG Lime's plant manager, Ron Bonnema, said when the federal government announced the citation more than two years ago. Bonnema could not be reached for comment Monday.
The MHSA can appeal the judge's decision to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. But a MHSA spokeswoman could not say Monday if the agency has decided to do so. After that, the next level of appeal is a U.S. District Court judge.
Meanwhile, another Giles County limestone mine company continues to contest citations and a fine related to a July 25, 1994, rock fall that killed 37-year-old Barry Snider of Blacksburg. The Eastern Ridge Lime Co., located near APG's Kimballton mine, has contested three safety citations and a $90,000 fine in connection with the accident. The MHSA announced the citations in September 1994, but only assessed the $90,000 fine two months ago. That case is awaiting review by an administrative law judge.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB