Wilbur Ross, a socially prominent businessman with homes on Fifth Avenue, in the Hamptons and Palm B...

1. Mine Owner Defends Safety Record
Wilbur Ross, a socially prominent businessman with homes on Fifth Avenue, in the Hamptons and
Palm Beach, bears the ultimate responsibility for the Sago mine. His company, the International Coal
Group, of which he is the chairman and principal owner, took over the mine in West Virginia just a
few months ago.
"Oh my God. It's the worst week of my entire life," he told ABC News.
In the business world, Ross is known as a shrewd investor who buys companies in trouble. Two years
ago, he made his move into the coal industry and recently rescued the tiny Sago mine that had been
in bankruptcy for two years. Although Ross bought into a mine that, for its size, may have been the
most dangerous coal mine in America, he maintained that it met industry standards.
"I believe that the mine was fundamentally safe," he said.
Mine Received 16 Citations Last Year
But based on Department of Labor records that were reviewed by "Primetime," the Sago mine
received 16 citations last year for the most serious violations, called unwarranted failures, issued in
the industry.
"That's normally issued to mine operators that basically thumb their nose to the law, these
unwarrantable failure violations," said Joe Main, a recently retired safety director for the United
Mine Workers for 20 years.
"This is the kind of violation I think most operators cringe to get in a mining industry today because
of the significance of the violation itself," he continued. "So there is definitely a serious problem at
this coal mine when you look at just that one fact alone."
In an interview for ABC News, Ross appeared aware of the extent and seriousness of the violations
issued to the Sago mine over the last year. Yet, the company did not shut down the mine.
"We were comfortable, based on the assurances from our management that they felt that it was a
safe situation," Ross said of sending workers into the mine.
But today, in West Virginia, some of the miners and relatives did not agree.
"I do have some anger. I'm angry that they would have so many citations, and it just sounds to me
that people knew it was dangerous. I'm angry about that," Tambra Flint, the mother of the only
survivor, Randal McCloy, said.
In fact, the documents examined by "Primetime" show there were a total of 20 roof collapses at the
Sago mine last year, which led the government to order more than a dozen partial shutdowns of the
mine.
"His company really stands out as an irresponsible and dangerous operation," said Jack Spadaro, a
mining engineer and former employee of the Mining Health and Safety Administration, an agency
within the Department of Labor.

2. Up until he retired a year and a half ago, Spadaro was in charge of training federal mine inspectors.
"These are substantial violations that go to the heart of mine health and safety," he continued. "If
that small of a mine has that large amount of violations, it jumps out. It should have definitely have
closed."
While President Bush expressed sympathy for the lost miners and their families, Spadaro maintained
that under the Bush administration, officials in charge of mine safety have become too cozy with the
mine industry.
"The inspectors have been forbidden from being as aggressive as they need to be," Spadaro says.
"They can't go ahead and close the mine and use the authority that they have to do the job that
they've been charged to do."