Trinity of Truth

In April 2010, 29 mines died at a Massey coal mine, the largest mining US disaster since 1970. In March 2010, the authorities cited the mine for 57 safety infractions, 50 for improper ventilation and poor escape routes and there have been a total of 1,342 safety violations since 2005. Between 2000 and 2009, two fatalities occurred at this mine. Federal regulators had ordered portions of the mine closed 60 times in the last year. Family members of the minors who died were informed via the Internet; no one from Massey called them to personally tell them.

How does this happen in a "modern" world? In their desire to be 100% accurate, regulators and the safety community do not use judgment. In an interview between CBC’s As It Happens with an editor of an industry safety newsletter, the editor was asked to speculate as to whether the lack of proper ventilation cited in the numerous safety violations, caused the explosion. She proudly responded that it was impossible to say because there was once a mine explosion that was caused by lightening, but she promised that investigators would be "tough" and get to the bottom of the cause of the explosion once they gathered their evidence. Even the safety editor was not outraged at the lack of preventative action and the interviewer did not probe further - because technically she was accurate. No one feels any complicity because "how could they know" that a spark would ignite the gas? They cannot predict the future.

Why is this company even operating with such an obvious disregard for life? Because there is little regulatory teeth and the executive clearly feel little social peer pressure, or incur sufficient regulatory penalties, for operating such a reprehensible company. Further, in the United States, corporate law is based on the firm ground that a government cannot interfere with a corporate structure. This law was determined in the days of mercantilism when monarchs would regularly unfairly intervene in commercial activities. But times have changed and now we live the age of moral relativism - where no one dares to say anything until after someone causes harm — and even then say we say “allegedly" until the moral outrage passes. Our collective ability to prevent tragedy is nothing short of shameful.

The FBI has reportedly launched a probe, investigating charges of criminal negligence and possible bribery of federal regulators. Meanwhile years will go by and more people will die, and the executives who are paid hundreds of time more than the managers who actually made the decisions to balance their local budgets by cutting back on safety 'requirements', will never 'pay' for the 'accident'.

Our legal systems are not delivering justice for the most egregious of crimes: those who make outrageous profits from the wilful disregard for life. Corporate accountability laws needs to be changed. What I like about the concept of sins over crimes is that is much better at risk management. It is a sin to covet they neighbour's wife. In other words, marriages, like life, are so fragile and precious, they should not be threatened by even a reckless thought, never mind reckless action. I am not advocating a return of theocracies; I am suggesting our legal system could learn a lesson or two about preventing the worst crimes from occuring in the first place.