Judge upholds fine in Quecreek accident
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An administrative judge Thursday reaffirmed his order that PBS Coals, owner of the Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, pay a $55,000 civil penalty for "gross negligence."
The federal citation involves the July 2002 accident in which nine coal miners, relying on erroneous maps, breached the abandoned and flooded Saxon Mine. The miners were rescued after being trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine for nearly 77 hours.
During hearings in 2007, representatives of PBS Coals and Musser Engineering, which prepared the map used by the miners, told investigators with the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration that they did everything they could to ensure the safety of miners.
But in 2008, Chief Administrative Law Judge Robert J. Lesnick from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission agreed with an MSHA finding that faulted the companies and imposed the fines.
The ruling against Musser Engineering and the penalty against PBS Coals later were remanded by the commission in a 2-1 vote. Judge Lesnick, in his ruling, disagreed with the commission's positions on several points.
"I respectfully take issue with what I view as a usurpation by the commission majority of my role as fact-finder," the judge said. "What the commission majority ignores ... is that this case involves an engineering firm that prepared an inaccurate map that was used as a template for future maps. So long as maps have been made, mapmakers have held in their hands the fates of countless persons.
"Inaccurate maps are, by definition, ticking time bombs, and in fact, the law generally holds mapmakers to producing maps that 'accurately depict what they purport to show' so as to avoid catastrophe."
He went on to say, "To suggest that Musser could not foresee the uses to which its map would be put by companies who chose to identify themselves with the word 'coal' in their corporate names is simply hard to swallow."
PBS Coals was given 40 days to pay the fine to MSHA.
A representative of PBS Coals said the company had not seen the ruling and could not comment.
Randy Musser, president of Musser Engineering in Central City, Somerset County, likewise was unaware of the ruling and said he was not prepared to discuss it. He did, however, stress that the commission had voided the citation against his company.
"The commission understood that we had no control over or responsibility for mine safety at Quecreek Mine," Mr. Musser said.
First Published April 22, 2011 12:00 am
