Pubdate: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) Copyright: 2003 Lexington Herald-Leader Contact: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240 Author: Bill Estep, Herald-Leader Staff Writer CODY MINER ALLEGES DRUG USE Report on Fatal Blast May Prompt Abuse Tests FRANKFORT - Employees at a Floyd County coal mine routinely violated safety rules before a fatal blasting accident in June, and one witness even said two miners had been using drugs underground, according to a state report. The Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals released its report yesterday on the June 13 accident at Cody Mining Co. Inc., near McDowell in Floyd County. The blast killed miner Paul Blair, 21, and severely injured the superintendent, Robert Ratliff Jr., 28, whose father owns the mine. The report first included a recommendation that the state legislature give Mines and Minerals inspectors authority to require miners to submit to drug tests in suspect circumstances. It is illegal to work at a mine while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but state inspectors can't order drug tests. The department later softened that stance, issuing a one-page revision that said Mines and Minerals would analyze the need for changes in the law or regulations to address alcohol and drug use in the mining industry. Mines and Minerals spokeswoman Holly McCoy said the department decided to make the change because of the need to look at a number of issues, such as who would pay for drug tests, before making a recommendation. The report paints a troubling picture of how a small mine skirted the law, ignoring safety rules until state inspectors showed up, and of how miners ignored the violations. One indicated miners had to put up with bad practices in order to hang on to a job in an area where employment is scarce. It "wouldn't have done me no good to complain" to Ratliff about unsafe blasting practices, said Jesse Blair, the brother of the dead man. "They would have just got somebody else in my place." Some of the myriad problems at the mine had been disclosed earlier in more than 50 citations issued by Mines and Minerals against Cody Mining. The citations charge unsafe blasting practices, inadequate ventilation, poor attention to safety and even the discovery of a small amount of marijuana at the mine. But the allegation about prescription drug abuse was new in yesterday's report. Billy Adams, who operated a roof-bolting machine at the mine, told state investigators that he saw Ratliff and Blair snorting ground-up pills in the mine for about two months before the accident. The two snorted the pills through a copper tube normally used to splice cable, Adams said. Adams said he tried to get the two to stop. "I don't think the accident would have happened had it not been for the drugs," the report quoted Adams. The report did not indicate what kind of pills the two men allegedly snorted. Adams was the only one of 10 witnesses associated with the mine who mentioned the drug use, and Mines and Minerals did not include any finding about drug use in its report. Justin Morgan, a Lexington attorney who represents Blair's family, said Blair's widow, Angela, and his parents have no knowledge of him being involved in any such drug activity as described in the report and deny that he was. "We think that ultimately it'll be proven that he's mistaken," Morgan said of Adams. McCoy said Mines and Minerals is starting to talk to mine owners and operators about their policies on drug testing and issues related to substance abuse. McCoy said she guessed that if drug problems have gotten worse in society, they've also increased in the mining industry. Mine owner Robert Ratliff Sr. did not return a phone call inquiring about the report yesterday. The small mine, which opened in 1997 and produced about 300 tons of coal a day as a contractor for Knott-Floyd Land Co., has been closed by state order since the accident. State records show Cody Mining had been cited for a number of non-compliances in the last two years, such as excessive dust, improper ventilation and roof support problems. But the violations were not excessive for a mine of that type -- "nothing that really would have tipped us off," McCoy said. The operation at Cody Mining involved "blasting from the solid," meaning miners drilled holes into the coal, tamped in explosives and set them off, then scooped up the coal with loading machines and dumped it onto a conveyor for transport outside. State inspectors found a long list of violations at the mine after the blast, however. Among other things, miners used a non-permissible drill to make holes in the coal, which allowed them to pack in more explosives; tamped in far more explosive than allowed; and blasted in more than one place at a time, according to the report. Ratliff Jr. had also allowed cross-cut passages in the mine to stray off course. They are supposed to be put at right angles to the main passage, but two cuts had been driven toward each other at an incorrect angle, the report said. That meant the barrier was too thin between the explosive charges set off on June 13 and the spot where Blair, Ratliff Jr. and shot firer Robert Delong -- who also was treated for injuries -- had gone for shelter while the blasts were being set off. That was one key reason the force of the blast and the coal and rock hit the men. Several miners described a desperate scramble to check on Blair and Ratliff. They said it was obvious Blair was dead, while Ratliff seemed to be choking on blood. The miners loaded Ratliff into a scoop and drove him to the surface. Ratliff Sr. acknowledged having the non-permissible drill, but told inspectors the mine did not use more than the legal limit of explosives in each hole, and said an engineering company had told him before the blast that the course of the cross-cuts looked fine, the report said. Miners said Ratliff Jr. would have the drill hidden when inspectors came to the mine. And Blair said the miners would scramble to fix other safety problems only when inspectors came to the property, hanging ventilation curtains and spreading rock dust, which lowers the risk of an explosion, to avoid citations. Miner Estill Lowe told inspectors that section foreman Eugene Conley told him to hide the drill after the accident. Conley denied that, but Mines and Minerals charged Cody Mining with altering the scene of an accident for allegedly moving the drill. The department has charged that Ratliff Sr. and Conley lied to investigators, and has asked the state Mine Safety Review Commission to permanently revoke a variety of mining certifications held by them, Ratliff Jr. and Delong, limiting their ability to work in mines. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake