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Coal mine owner commits suicide
Allentown Morning Call
By Chris Parker
October 16, 2007
The owner of a Schuylkill County coal mine where a
miner died in a blast last year committed suicide at
the business early Monday.
David S. Himmelberger of Tremont died of a gunshot
wound, county Coroner David Dutcavich said.
Himmelberger was president and owner of the R&D Coal
Mine in the township, where a methane blast on Oct.
23, 2006, killed Dale Reightler, 43, of Donaldson,
Frailey Township, Schuylkill County.
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration
subsequently fined the company $874,500 for
''flagrant'' safety violations at the mine.
''Mr. Himmelberger committed an act of self-harm this
morning and was successful at taking his own life,''
Dutcavich said. ''He apparently left home very early
this morning, as was his habit, and didn't say
anything to anybody.
Dutcavich said Himmelberger' s co-workers said he had
been out of sorts.
Reached by phone, Himmelberger' s wife, Dawn, said she
was at a loss for words, but added, ''They are pushing
these miners to the brink.''
Himmelberger' s attorney, Adele Abrams, said he was
distressed by the prolonged case and potential fines
that would have sent him into bankruptcy, according to
the Mine Safety and Health News newsletter.
Cindy Rothermel, president of the Independent Miners
and Associates, an anthracite mine industry advocacy
group based in Tremont, said, ''We have no words --
everybody is just totally astounded.''
R&D was the first mining company cited for flagrant
violations under new federal rules forged in 2006. The
rules allow much higher financial penalties, and the
company could have been fined about $1.33 million for
the violations investigators found.
In a report released March 26, MSHA blamed the blast
on inadequate ventilation, poor blasting practice --
including leaving an uncovered box of explosives 30
feet from the blast area -- having unqualified miners
doing the blasting, firing the blast before miners
could move to a safe area and improper preshift
examinations of the work area at the company's Buck
Mountain Slope Mine in Tremont Township.
The report said mine operators waited more than an
hour after the explosion to call 911, and almost 90
minutes to notify federal mining officials. Though the
report also said it was miner Reightler who left the
explosives at the blast site, was to have checked for
methane gas, and who gave the signal for the blast and
who disconnected an air hose from pneumatic drilling
equipment for ventilation, it was still R&D's
responsibility to ensure mining regulations were
followed.
The report found seven ''root causes'' for the blast
that, if eliminated, would have prevented or mitigated
it. Among them were that the miners who conducted the
blasting activities were not qualified to handle, load
or fire explosives. The report also said the shots
were fired before miners were in safe areas, and that
Reightler was ''in a straight line with the force of
the blast when the shot was fired, causing fatal
injuries.'' In addition, it said mine operators didn't
ensure there was enough circulating air current to
dilute or carry away ''explosive noxious and harmful
gases.'' The report also says the mine used long
entries with temporary ventilation even though MSHA
officials told Himmelberger two weeks before the blast
that it was in violation of federal mine regulations.
The state Department of Environmental Protection
forced the company to close in January and revoked its
mining permit for disregarding the ''safety and
well-being of the miners and their families.'' The DEP
said the company misled the agency on details of a
2004 blast that injured four miners, saying it was an
air line explosion when in fact it was a methane
explosion similar to the October 2006 blast.
_________________
Pioneering the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Preservation ! ). . . Saving equipment (1) mine site at a time.
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