Fatal mine accident man-made disaster

Editor's Note: At least 11 people are trapped in Liangbaosi coal mine in Jiaxiang county, Shandong province, after an accident on Wednesday morning. And 15 people were killed and nine injured in a gas explosion in a coal mine in Pingyao county, Shanxi province, on Monday. Beijing News comments:

An initial investigation into the explosion at Ermugou coal mine in Pingyao has revealed the owner's lack of awareness of the rule of law and poor management.

On its official website, the country's top coal production regulator said that a preliminary investigation found that the pillars in the mining section of the Pingyao coal mine were arranged in violation of regulations and the ventilators were not used correctly, resulting in a large amount of gas overflow in the goaf, which exploded when there was a spark. The accident revealed that the person in charge of the mine made a series of decisions in order to make more profit that violated the regulations.

It is deplorable that 15 people lost their lives because of this. The local government and the relevant national authorities publicly accused the company's owners of greed and mismanagement, and classified the accident as a "production safety accident that violates the law and regulations". Clearly the coal mine accident was a man-made disaster. Some problems listed by the top coal production regulator such as illegal mining, illegal contracting and the absence of key monitoring cameras, are like dominoes so that a spark is enough to cause the whole production chain to fall.

The Ermugou coal mine belongs to the Pingyao Fengyan Coke Group, a leading enterprise in the region. However, such an enterprise still tries desperately to save costs at the expense of the lives of the miners, in serious violation of the law and lack the basic moral bottom line.

The authorities should launch a thorough investigation into how the man-made disaster in the Pingyao coal mine happened and hold accountable anyone in dereliction of their duty of supervision.