West Virginia Code of State Rules › Agency 56 - Miners' Health, Safety And Training › Title 56 - LEGISLATIVE RULE OFFICE OF MINERS' HEALTH, SAFETY AND TRAINING › Series 56-03 - Safety Of Those Employed In And Around Surface Mines In WV › Section 56-3-12 - Director and Inspectors Authorized to Enter Mines; Duties of Inspectors to Examine Mines; No Advance Notice; Reports After Fatal Accidents

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 28, July 12, 2024
12.1. The director or his/her authorized
				representative shall have authority to visit, enter, and examine any mine,
				whether underground or surface and may call for the assistance of any mine
				inspector or inspectors whenever such assistance is necessary in the
				examination of any mine. The operator of every coal mine shall furnish the
				director or mine inspector proper facilities for entering such mine and making
				examination or obtaining information.
12.2. If miners at any mine or one of their
				authorized representatives have reason to believe that dangerous conditions are
				existing or that the law is not being complied with, they may request the
				director to have an immediate investigation made.
12.3. Mine inspectors shall devote their full
				time and undivided attention to the performance of their duties, and they shall
				examine all of the mines in the respective districts and as often, in addition
				thereto, as the director may direct, or the necessities of the case or the
				condition of the mine or mines may require, with no advance notice of
				inspection provided to any person, and they shall make a personal examination
				of each surface mine operation for the purpose of determining whether a danger,
				described in W.Va. Code §§
									22A-1-14 and 15 exists in any such mine, or
				whether any provisions of chapter 22A of the code are being violated or have
				been violated within the past forty-eight (48) hours in any such
				mine.
12.4. In addition to the
				other duties imposed by this rule, it shall be the duty of each inspector to
				note each violation found and issue an order or notice, as appropriate for each
				violation so noted. During the investigation of any accident, any violation may
				be noted whether or not the inspector actually observes the violation and
				whether or not the violation exists at the time the inspector notes the
				violation, so long as the inspector has clear and convincing evidence the
				violation has occurred or is occurring.
12.5. The mine inspector shall visit the
				scene of each fatal accident occurring in any mine within his/her district and
				shall make an examination into the particular facts of such accident; make a
				report to the director, setting forth the results of such examination,
				including the condition of the mine and the cause or causes of such fatal
				accident, if known, and all such reports shall be made available to the
				interested parties, upon written requests.
12.6. At the commencement of any inspection
				of a coal mine by an authorized representative of the director, the authorized
				representative of the miners at the mine at the time of such inspection shall
				be given an opportunity to accompany the authorized representative of the
				director on such inspection.