« Previous | Main | Next »

"PLEASE BRING MY DADDY HOME"

October 03, 2007 10:35 AM

Wendy Black was lucky.  Her coal miner husband Dale was not one of those trapped deep in the ground when a portion of Utah's Crandall Canyon mine violently collapsed on August 6th. "I didn't hear from him until about 10:00pm, when he arrived home," she tells the house education and labor committee.  "I was so relieved when I seen him and that he was Ok, just really tired and worried about the men and how they were going to get them out."

Dale was supposed to have a couple of days off, but instead he got up every morning at 4:15am and rode up to the mine, part of the rescue effort, coming home sometimes at 8:00pm, other evenings as late as 10:00pm.  "I WAS JUST GLAD WHEN HE WOULD FINALLY COME HOME" Wendy says in her statement.  "MY HUSBAND FELT HE HAD TO BE THERE BECAUSE THESE TRAPPED MINERS WERE HIS FRIENDS, HIS FAMILY IN A WAY...he told me about the letters and pictures that the families had put up at the mine, the one he remembered the most said PLEASE BRING MY DADDY HOME.  This gave Dale the courage and determination to go back into that hell hole."

On August 16th, Wendy Black was not so lucky.  On that morning Dale entered the mine and never came out.   

She closes her testimony with some harsh words for the Mine Safety Health Administration.  "It would have taken just ONE MSHA MAN DOING HIS JOB to have SAVED MY HUSBAND'S LIFE.  WHICH ONE OF THEM WASN'T DOING THEIR JOB?"

In addition to Wendy Black, other relatives of the presumed dead coal miners at Crandall Canyon Mine will also testify.

October 3, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0)

User Comments

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: