You have mortgage payments and up keep, home owners insurance, utility bills, auto payments and up keep, auto insurance, health insurance, food and clothing and all of the other bills that come to your door every month; they are a big reason we go to work. To get ahead you must first keep up. I am sure that the employees at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah went to work every day for much the same reasons as you. They were just trying to take care of their families. They can not do that any more because they are dead. They are dead because the company they worked for put them in harms way, for profit. They are dead because they saw no other way to take care of their families. They are dead because they thought that their paycheck was more important than their safety.

Who will take care of their family tomorrow, next week, and next year?

They had a short term solution to a long term commitment. And they are dead.

There is a government agency whose sole responsibility it is to set standards and working conditions for the mining industry and to enforce the compliance of those standards. It failed to do its intended duty. It failed to require the mine operator to conduct his business within those federally mandated standards.

The company that operated the mine, the people that own the company that operated the mine knew what was safe and what was not. The company that operated the mine was aware of the federal safety mandates. The company that operated the mine knew that they could make more money by shortcutting some of the safety practices; and probably get away with it. So that is what they did. The company that operated the mine will probably close it down.

The federal agency that was to have cared for the workers will hold hearings and make a big deal out of the fact that they are being held. The government will huff and puff, like always, doing little. The citizens of our country will after a while loose interest.  

And the people that died trying to take care of their families will still be dead.

Please be careful at work today. If you do not take care of yourself no one else will.

Hey

Now get this in Ontario Canada there are no...zero... nothing...zip regulating pumps here and you dont need plates/tages you can go on any roads you want and use dyed diesel.... and you dont have to report to any of the scales on the roads. Now you should see some of the operators here and some of the junk on the roads. Most are good but some.... well I would not want to be on the end of the hose... let alone near them on the roads...

I have had the odd occurance that I know I saved some lives when my 3rd section came down.. Well we all want to go home and we all what everyone on the site we are working to go home... So lets all play safe have fun even on the 18 hr days and keep the clean side up.....

My nightmare story.  A couple of years ago I was called in to pump a residental foundation.  Now normal experience with residental is not real good.  Some of the terrain they expect you to set up on.  But this job was good, level, solid ground.  I set up, even made a dry run, as I always do, before mud arrives.  30 yds into the pour, as my boom came over my rear outrigger, I caved in on top of an old abandon septic tank.  It was like slow motion.  When I realized what was going on I screamed at the men to jump.  They all jumped to saftey except the hose man.  Trapped between the wall and my boom.  A day from hell that will live with me forever.  My point is, you need to practice as many safe proceedures as possible, you never know when the unexpected will pop up.  Take heed to what Bob says.