Sago widow puts personal face on safety issue

By Bill Archer

BLUEFIELD — The 2006 Bluefield Coal Symposium addressed coal mine safety on a level that took a very personal turn on Thursday. When Ray McKinney, district manager, district 5 of the Mine Safety and Health Administration was making his presentation as part of the Sago investigation, Debbie Hamner, the widow of George Hamner one of the coal miners who died in the Jan. 2 Sago Mine disaster that claimed the lives of 12 coal miners posed a question to McKinney.

“She asked Mr. McKinney if the wives of trapped coal miners should be represented in the command post,” Bill Reid, chairman of the Bluefield Coal Symposium said. “Mr. McKinney spoke with her after his presentation.”

Hamner and her daughter, Sara, drove to Bluefield from their farm near Buckhannon to attend the three-day seminar. “I don’t know if we’ll stay for the Friday morning session,” Hamner said. “We were hoping for an update on Sago. That didn’t happen.”

Sara (Hamner) Bailey found a computer and did some searches as her mother talked with local media. Hamner said that despite her disappointment concerning the release of any new information related to the mine disaster that claimed her husband’s life, she was pleased to see the new safety-oriented technology and expressed her hope that “some good” would come from the tragedy.

“He was my best friend,” Hamner said of her husband of 32 years. She said that he enjoyed farming and outdoor activities, but emphasized that, “He loved to mine coal.”

She said that “all coal miners are family,” and that the outpouring of love and support that she experienced when word of the tragedy began to unfold has continued unabated since that time. “Coal gets in your blood,” she said.

She said that the widows of the miners continue to get together frequently. “We meet for lunch,” she said. “Yes, we do.” She also said that when people learn of her loss, they still approach her and express their condolences.

Hamner did not express dislike for the media as a result of the conflicting reports that emerged shortly after the bodies of her husband and his fellow miners were discovered. Instead, she pointed out that there was a great deal of “confusion” at that time.

“The media has been wonderful,” she said. She is now working to promote mine safety in anyway that she can, and noted that “the media plays an important part,” in getting the message of coal mine safety out to the public.

“I’m doing the best that I can do,” she said. “If we can speak out (on the topic of safety) that’s what we want to do.”

In addition to McKinney, other top MSHA officials including Richard Gates and Allen Dupree, as well as Joe Welsh, deputy director of NIOSH and Ron Wooten, director of the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training addressed various aspects of the Sago disaster during the morning session. Juliette E. Hill and Mark Skiles, both of MSHA joined Dr. R. Larry Grayson, chairman of commission formed by the National Mining Association to examine the Sago disaster to address the 200 attendees during the afternoon session.

Ronald G. Stovash, senior vice president of operations, Consol Energy, made the luncheon presentation on the topic of Marketing Coal to America. Stovash also addressed safety topics during his presentation, but his topic was coal marketing. He appointed everyone in the audience as “Honorary Coal Marketers” and urged them to: “Go out each day and remind everyone you meet that we are America’s future.”

Today’s morning session begins at 8 a.m., and will feature presentations on mining legislation and training.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com