November 19, 2010. A methane explosion ripped through the mine on the West Coast. Twenty-nine workers died. The mine had inadequate ventilation, faulty equipment, non-functioning gas sensors, and no safe emergency exit. Management knew. The Trade Union knew. Government regulators knew.
Widows Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse met with Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden on the 15th anniversary of the Pike River disaster.
Anna Osborne said after the meeting, “I don’t know, I’ve come out of there still feeling really unhappy because there’s just no guarantees that people who go to work are going to return home safely,”
Workplace Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has been overhauling workplace safety and planning to shift WorkSafe’s focus from enforcement, to advice and guidance.
The mine disaster was caused by the company ignoring critical safety precautions. They failed to manage explosive methane gas, with dozens of dangerous gas warnings in the weeks before the explosion being ignored or treated as a nuisance. The ventilation system was poorly designed and inadequate. The mine lacked essential emergency safeguards, including a reliable second escape route and a properly staffed safety department.
This created an environment where the explosion was inevitable. But…it seems that even today….no-one is responsible. Certainly not the politicians we elected in the past and now the present politicians are doing the Pontius Pilate act.