Coal Company Kentucky Darby Must Pay Full $342,000 Fine From Deadly 2006 Explosion By Oct. 19

September 12, 2008 9:40 a.m. EST

Atlanta, GA (AHN) - A coal company will pay the full $342,000 federal fine stemming from the May 20, 2006 explosion at a mine in Harlan County, Kentucky that killed fiver workers.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced Thursday that the operator of the Darby Mine #1 had withdrawn its challenge to six contributory safety and health violations issued against it after the disaster.

With its challenge dropped, Kentucky Darby LLC's must pay the money by Oct. 19.

"MSHA cited and assessed Darby #1 Mine appropriately for its disregard of basic safety practices that led to the deaths of five workers," Richard E. Stickler, acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, said in a statement. "We will continue to hold mine operators accountable whenever there are violations of safety requirements."

The explosion at the mine in Holmes Mill was the worst coal-mine disaster in the state since a blast killed 10 Western Kentucky miners in 1989.

An attorney who represents widows of four men killed in the disaster, as well as the lone survivor, said he hopes MSHA will give the fine money to the miners' families, instead of the federal government.