To: All
I found this while doing some research on mines and found it to be very interesting.
Salt Lake Tribune Wall Collapse in Kingston-Owned Mine Kills 1 Second worker injured; death is mine site's 3rd BY GREG BURTON THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Copyright 1999, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE A mine worker was killed and another injured late Thursday when a tunnel wall collapsed during a continuous mining operation at Bear Canyon Mine, a lucrative central Utah mine owned by the polygamous Kingston clan. Waiting for a shuttle car to return to a seam of coal, Alejandro Medina, 31, was crushed to death when a "rib" or tunnel wall fell, according to a preliminary accident report from the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Another miner, Miguel Sanchez, was treated and released at Castleview Hospital in Price for minor injuries. Medina's death is the third mining death at the Bear Canyon site since December 1996. The Kingston-mine deaths represent half of the six coal mine-related deaths in Utah since 1995, a number MSHA agents find troubling. "It is absolutely" a concern, said Ted Farmer, the regional MSHA supervisor of the government's Castledale office. "We are going to do a very thorough inspection of the mine," said Amy Louviere, MSHA spokesperson in Arlington, Va. "At this time, the main focus is on the cause." Almost two years ago, Kingston clan member Samuel Jenkins, 45, was crushed by a shuttle car during a cave-in at Bear Canyon Mine in Huntington Canyon. Jenkin's death was followed by a federal fatal accident report citing CW Mining (short for the late clan leader Charles W. Kingston) for a faulty roof control plan, inadequate cutting and failure to keep loose coal off the mining floor. Last year, his widow, Elaine Jenkins, and their six children sued CW Mining and two individuals for wrongful death and product liability. The lawsuit is pending. Five days before Christmas 1996, 46-year-old miner Harvey Albert Randall was killed at Bear Canyon when a rock slid off a coal-cutting machine, crushing him against another piece of mining equipment. The deaths of Randall and Jenkins will play a role in the latest federal investigation of Kingston mining operations and the death of Medina, Louviere said. "It is true that we have had that run [of three deaths in 2 1/2 years], but this line has been in operation since 1940, and it is also the third fatality since 1940," said Wendell Owen, a Bear Canyon supervisor and longtime Kingston confidant. Thursday's death "was an unusual accident," he said. Federal mine inspectors have temporarily closed the Bear Canyon operation and have begun an audit of the Kingston mine, a task routinely undertaken after a severe mining accident. MSHA agents from Utah, Virginia and Pennsylvania will inspect the tunnel where the accident occurred, check time slips and training forms for all employees and conduct interviews with supervisors and co-workers of Medina and Sanchez. CW Mining is also known as the Co-Op Mine, a business whose directors include John Daniel Kingston, recently convicted in 1st District Court for beating his daughter who was trying to leave a forced polygamous marriage to David Ortell Kingston, the girl's uncle and John Daniel's brother. David Ortell Kingston was sentenced to prison for up to 10 years last Friday for incest and unlawful sexual abuse. Joseph Kingston, another sibling, is also listed as an agent for Co-Op Coal Development Corp. In evaluating Thursday's fatality, MSHA will weigh previous violations and details of the recent death against the operator's willingness to correct violations and financial wherewithal. Routine violations can result in fines as large as $55,000. Fatality investigations, though, can result in a much larger "special assessment," Louviere said. According to the government's initial, but still not verified, report, 18 miners were inside Bear Canyon Mine No. 1 at 11 p.m. Thursday when a rib "bounced," a mining term for a geological quiver produced by pressure from the surrounding mountain. "It's like a small earthquake," said Nathan Atwood, a former supervisor at the Kingston mine who left the polygamous clan. "A bounce is the result of extracting coal out of the mountain . . . There is tremendous pressure and [the mountain] is trying to release it." The Kingstons have extracted millions of dollars of coal from their central Utah stronghold, financing lucrative land and mine developments, including the recent purchase of the adjacent and historic Hiawatha mine and the accompanying turn-of-the-century mining town, complete with paved roads, sewer, water, homes, machine shops, a grocery store, downtown business district, jail and cemetery. Atwood, who is not a polygamist, says when he worked at the mine, the company allegedly skirted federal standards, doctored time slips, failed to adequately train employees and hired undocumented workers. Federal audits conducted after the previous two fatalities reported no such violations. "We broke a lot of federal rules," Atwood said. "The Kingstons are very organized. They hire cheap labor . . . They do not train their people properly, that is all there is to it. They don't put the effort into it, and they have got a high turnover." "We are always trying to do all we can to make it safer," Owen said. "We consider even one [fatality] too many. We try to cooperate with MSHA safety rules." The tunnel where the accident occurred produces about 40 percent of the coal at Bear Canyon, Owen said. The tunnel will be closed for several days while inspectors complete interviews. A final report on the accident, including any potential federal violations or fines, is not expected for several weeks. About 60 people are employed at the mine. "We did close the entire mine today out of respect to the other workers," said Owen, who denied the mine is owned by the Kingstons. "This has nothing to do with polygamy."
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I don't know what this means in my research but thought it was something to put on the back burner.
To: scaredkat
Wendell Owen. And I got the other one wrong, didn't I? It's Cynthia Smart Owens.
One's with an "s" and the other is without an "s"?
You mentioned Ricci, too. Is there a tie-in?
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