Bad News: 12 Of 13 Miners Dead In W Virginia Mine Mines Accident In West Virginia, US

[kasm 0]

Only one miner alive. Offical in West Vargina has announced.

Few hours ago the Governer was announced that he had been told 12 of the miners survived the disaster and relatives were celebrating that .

Details at:
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/


So 5 mine accidents in USA since 1984 took life of 67 miners.

Morever frequent mines accidents in Russia, Ukrania and China.

The critical question is: When the researches in robotics and Artificial Intelligence will be applied and developed in such way that after starting the productions, the robots will be the only workers in the mines. The same in the nuclear activities.

[Saint_Michael 3]

well when i saw this post i was what the huh?? we were just told they all survived, but then they change that hopefully someone gets fire for false information about that cuz doign that to someone is pretty bad juju. Also the people the own the mine should get thrown in jail as well for not making the safety of their workers their priority.Problem is that they have the technology but they don't want to use it and waste millions of dollars if it happen to get destroyed so use the might of the human body do do your work and all it will cost is their lives if they can't get rescued.

[Plenoptic 0]

That is probably the meanest thing anyone could do to somebody. You don't go around spreading rumors about things especially in a case like this. Everyone was celebrating until three hours after they had been told they were all alive, they were told only one is still alive but in critical condition. They found that he has no sign of carbon monoxide poisoning which is good and there isn't a sign of brain damage yet so hopefully he will pull through and tell everyone just what happened and stuff. I would think that by now they would have mines really safe for the fact that like SM said we do have the technology but I guess not cause people have to make money these days not spend it on safety features.

[wild20 0]

I know. I heard. It is really bad. I can't believe that mining is so dangerous. They should improve the safeness of mines. All the companies care about is making money on these guys and I doubt that they are going to have that many tears over the fact that they lost a few men, I mean, you can always hire more.Artificial Intelligence should be applied now, instead of letting miners die in those pits! We have technology, we need to get out there and use it!

[hellRAISER666 0]

Ahhhh the news always bull. I hate when they do that. The US gets worser and worser every years. I wander when will it be peaceful again

Notice from rejected:

Please refrain from using profane words. Member warned

Edited January 8, 2006 by rejected (see edit history)

[concertina226 0]

What awful news :)I think it's really sad that rumours were spread that 12 of the 13 miners were alive and the poor families were given hope in vain. But I think that we shouldn't really be too hard on the ones who started the rumour, because they probably didn't do it with any intention of harming anyone.It actually is a very good idea to use robots to do the work down there instead of miners - just look at China... lousy mining processes and protocol, so many miners die every year, and they never learn...

[rejected 0]

Eek, what a disaster. The relatives of the dead miners must be quite angry with the governor for leading them on..I know I would be. Let's hope that new technology develops for mines to decrease the fatalities.. As kasm said, robots will eventually take the place in mines and nuclear factories, the question is just when?

[Plenoptic 0]

I don't think it was the govenor. From what I here someone reported that there was 12 miners dead and 1 alive but someone heard wrong and switched it around. I don't know why the people were celebrating though. There was still one dead either way and that is nothing to celebrate cause they really didn't know who was dead, but I guess they were just glad most of them were alive(so they thought) I feel sorry for their families, has to be heartbreaking.

[Cerebral Stasis 0]

First of all, artificial intelligence is not yet advanced enough for a robot to be able to find resources and mine them completely one their own yet, and such research would cost millions, if not billions, of dollars. Ditto the complete replacement of cheap labor with expensive mechanical labor. The reason that mining is efficient is because people can hire a bunch of desperate people at low wages to risk their lives for everyone else. If they had to install robots, prices for all resources would skyrocket (expect 4 to 5 dollars per gallon for gas, if not more, let alone things such as power, petrolium products, etc.). Human labor is cheap, and that's why it's used. Besides, 67 lives lost in the mining industry over the past 21 years is a very reasonable number - approximately 3 lives lost per year, which isn't very many. Far more people get killed daily by driving cars, and yet people aren't replacing all manual cars with completely GPS-controlled ones. Money is power, people, and 67 lives do not stand up to the millions of dollars it would cost to change mining to a completely mechanized industry.On the other hand, open-pit mines are becoming more and more common. Open-pit mines are when large areas of land are scooped out and hauled away (there are a few near the power plants in this region), and are very, very safe. The only real danger would be an accident caused by the machinery that is being operated. I really didn't think that there were any more tunnel mines in the U.S. because gasses, cave-ins, and the like are such a big concern, not to mention the health risks of being closed in (as is the case with coal mining), or the difficulty in getting mined resources out of the tunnel to machinery that can quickly take it to where it needs to go.

[morosophos 0]

Why is it that everyone seems to be concerned with Whence did the original false report originate? and Who's to blame for the faulty information? Shouldn't we be more worried about the company who owns the mine and ignored the inspector's report on the eminent danger? My personal belief is that some poor, dyslexic wretch got his information askew. As dreadful a mistake as that may be, we really need to look to the more important details... the coal mine and its ownership.

 

Further, robots are probably the last thing West Virginia needs, especially the impoverished county in which that mine is located. The county needs the manual labour because it provides jobs. When we replace people witch machinery, not only do we hike up the prices on precious commodities, but we cause a rise in unemployment, further harming the local economy.

 

I think what needs to happen is a thorough investigation of the mining corporation.

[Cerebral Stasis 0]

I think we should sue the company for employing minors. Child labor laws forbid such a thing, and I think that we should do something about it, especially that twelve poor childrens' lives were lost because of it.(The above contains sarcasm.)