Charles Howes

Remember Don Blinkenship? He was the CEO of Massey Energy Company’s Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia that suffered the explosion on April 5^th, 2010 that killed 29 miners and injured several others.

 As battalions of news reporters assembled outside of his office and bombarded him daily with questions about the safety of his mines, Blinkenship resolutely maintained that he had done more to advance mining safety than the mining industry as a whole had done in the last decade. Yet, according to a July 18, 2010, editorial in The New York Times, there was evidence that the accident may have been caused when a company electrician by-passed a methane detector alarm that kept interrupting the flow of coal. Apparently the electrician was ordered to by-pass the detector by a middle- management supervisor.

 According to Mr. Blinkenship he spent a lot of money and effort to advance safety in his mines, but all of his efforts may have been undone by subordinates who at least “perceived” that upper-management valued production numbers more than safety. As a consequence, Mr. Blinkenship, once known as the King of Coal, ended up selling his company, narrowly escaping criminal prosecution, and may still be potentially liable for a number of civil suits, all because of a faulty perception.

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