When Does an Accident Become a Crime?

[IndianaGreen]

When Does an Accident Become a Crime?

Written by Zoltan Zigedy

"...waiting at the gate, we are waiting at the gate...while the miners' kids and wives wait at the gate..." Woody Guthrie

From 1900 until 1950, over 95,000 US workers were killed in coal mines, nearly as many as died in World War I and exceeded only by military deaths in the Civil War and World War II. Millions more were injured in this period. While records were not required, a conservative claim by the Bureau of Mines estimates that 140,000 miners were injured in 1914 alone, roughly 18% of all miners employed. Millions more went undiagnosed with black lung disease and severe arthritis. As recently as the 1990's, over 21,000 injuries occurred annually in coal mining, despite far fewer employed at that time in the industry.

Outside of the war-time military, no occupation has suffered nearly the rate of fatalities and injuries as has coal mining, including law enforcement. Yet there are no national memorials to mourn those losses.

Throughout this period, annual coal mining deaths averaged between two and eight a day. Yet there are no national days of remembrance.

During the early decades of the twentieth century, coal mine employment drew thousands of newly arrived immigrants speaking little or no English – mainly from Eastern Europe and Italy – who were drawn to rural coal mining towns throughout the US. They account for more than their share of those killed and maimed in the mines. Often the native-born were promoted to working above ground, replaced underground by newly arrived immigrants. This brutal story is lost in the current debates over immigration, a debate smothered by the same crude bigotry suffered by the immigrant miners of the twentieth century. Sadly, too many of the descendents of these immigrant miners have joined the chorus of vulgar nationalism that pollutes the discussion.

US coal operators were notorious for their callous disregard for safety and abuse of workers. Despite employing 40% more miners, the British coal industry experienced half as many fatalities in 1914 – a fairly typical year for fatalities in the first three decades of the twentieth century. The rate of deaths per thousand workers in the US was higher that year than that in the Union of South Africa, where workers were virtual slaves.

http://mltoday.com/en/subject-areas/commentary/when-does-an-accident-become-a-crime-828.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. K&R

[elleng]

2. The answer is, 'intent.'

Criminally negligent manslaughter >

Malice may be found if gross negligence amounts to wilful or depraved indifference to human life. In such a case, the wrongdoer may be guilty of second degree murder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manslaughter