national average is 2%. according to the mine safety and health administration within the last 15 months, two types of violations came up again and again, coal dust accumulation and inadequate ventilation, conditions that could lead to a massive explosion. the massey company declined to respond to cnn s questions about its safety violations. instead, directing us to a statement it issued after the explosion. quote, our top priority is the safety of our miners and the well-being of their families. within its questionable safety record, you may wonder why this mine was still in operation. federal authorities say it s not that simple. you re asking if i had the ability to shut a mine down based on what i find, and the answer to that is no. once a mine operator corrects the condition and makes it safe again, i can t allow or i can t allow my inspector to say, you keep that mine shut down.
this mine was even operating. the reason it was operating is all of the people who were very knowledgeable, whether it be at the federal government, the state government or massey had concluded that the mine was safe to operate and these violations and the efforts on the ventilation are efforts to improve it. but the man in charge of keeping america s coal mines and coal miners safe, kevin struckland doesn t see much room for argument. is it your sense, kevin, that this is a mine that needed to clean up its act? well, we think all mines need to clean up their act, but the number of violations issued here and the significance of them gave the indication that the mine operator would have been better suited to just comply with the regulations rather than us fining them. it s an emotional issue in this one-industry land. safety is a huge concern, but massey mines provide thousands of jobs and pour money into the legal community. john wooten is the west virginia state mining direc
are going to live here, you will probably end up working in the mine. shepard: the danger a fact of life for folks like him and all of them. james rosen continues our team fox coverage from washington. tell us more about the safety record of this particular company, james. well, you know, shep, it s not just poor safety compliance. it s also poor government enforcement that is plaguing mining in america. massey claims its rate fell to all time low and safety record last year was stronger than the industry average. nevertheless, this particular mine has seen three previous fatalities since 19956789 in that time the company has been cited for more than 3,000 violations, 614 in the last two years. and the federal mining safety and health administration or msha has proposed 1.5 million in fines against massey. once a mine operator correct the condition and makes it safe again, i can t allow or i
you re asking if i had the ability to shut a mine down based on what i find and the answer to that is no. once a mine operator corrects the condition and makes it safe again, i can t allow, or i can t allow my inspector to say you keep that mine shut down. when the condition is corrected, they re allowed to go back to mining. kevin, how would you characterize the record of this mine? i haven t looked at it as closely as i think a lot of other folks have. we ve been dealing with the rescue operation. i ve heard the number of 458 violations that have been issued. that s probably on the high side as far as an average, but again, this mine is a larger mine than a smaller mine. i m concerned that the number of d-orders, a heavier type of paper that has been issued, more than a regular citation that
we put minimum parameters in place that a mine operator would need to follow to make sure he has enough air and ventilation to keep an explosion from occurring. not just an explosion, but emission. it s quietest something went very it s quite evident that something was wrong and i would just ask to give us an opportunity to conduct a full investigation and we ll leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom and tell you exactly what was not going right here when this explosion did occur. the chief executive of the state some officials described the people who are operating this mine, massi, as among the worst offenders and they have a long history not just in this mine, but across the board for violations, fines,