Pike River Mine Inquiry: Day 10

Pike boss Peter Whittall faced intense questioning from the lawyer representing the families of the 29 men killed in the mine explosion.

Peter Whittall, photo/The Press

Did Pike put cash ahead of safety? That was the thrust of questioning from Richard Raymond, counsel representing the families of the Pike 29 on day 10 of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the disaster.

Raymond put it to Whittall that Pike had chosen to bring forward hydro-mining of a small “bridging” panel, at the expense of pushing west towards the area where a second emergency egress was to be constructed.

Under original mine plans, Pike was to have begun mining a trial panel further to the west of the coal field, with the proposed second emergency egress connecting to the mine in that area. Instead, it rejigged its plans and began producing coal from a small bridging panel further east.

“You were concentrating your work on building roads towards the bridging panel, and devoting men and resources to extracting coal, and not on building roads out to the west to the escarpment, where the second means of egress would have been,” said Raymond.

“No, that’s not true,” replied Whittall.

“Did you continue to build roads to the west?” asked Raymond.

Whittall’s lawyer Stacey Shortall interjected to ask commission chairman Justice Graham Panckhurst to stop Raymond’s line of questioning on the grounds that it related to later phases of the commission’s work, but her appeal was refused.

Whittall said several mining machines had been working towards the west, as well as in other directions.

Raymond responded with the suggestion that one of the machines, a Waratah continuous miner, was one of Pike’s least effective pieces of equipment and wasn’t operating at the time, and that its best machine was deployed away from the western part of the mine.

Whittall again rejected the suggestion that resources were diverted away from the task of pushing west and getting closer to the area where the second egress was to be built, saying there are only so many men and machines that can work in an area at any given time.

Raymond reminded Whittall that about four months before the November 19 explosion he and other senior managers had discussed doing a “test run” up the 100 metre-plus vertical ventilation shaft – Pike’s only means of escape other than the main 2.3km tunnel. “You recall that it was a bit of a joke among the four or five of you as to who would be able to get up it.”

When the time came for the exercise, Whittall, “didn’t turn up”, said Raymond. Whittall said he was on the road doing a shareholder briefing, and he had got a “ribbing” from his colleagues for his absence.

Bernie Monk, representative of the families, told reporters after the hearing that one of the men involved in that exercise had assured him that no-one would have survived the explosion by climbing up the vent shaft ladder.

Raymond also challenged Whittall on the utility of the vent shaft as an escape route if the men were using self-rescuers – a device that uses a chemical reaction to generate oxygen and lasts about 30-60 minutes. Raymond said users of the self-rescuers are not supposed to over-exert themselves.

“Was the impact of wearing one of those units in an irrespirable atmosphere while climbing a 100 metre vertical shaft, while no doubt under some stress, ever tested?”

Whittall: “I don’t know.”

Raymond also revealed that the safe working load for the vent shaft ladder was only eight men.

In earlier evidence Whittall had spoken of harnesses that could be used to help climb up the ladder. Raymond asked how many there were. Whittall said he didn’t know.

Raymond: “Would it surprise you to know there were only four?”

Whittall: “Well, I don’t know. I don’t expect there to be hundreds of them…I have no knowledge if there was four or ten.”

Raymond suggested to Whittall that the fresh-air base, referred to by Whittall in earlier evidence as a safe place for men to go in an emergency, had room for only 20 men. Whittall said he couldn’t say how many would fit. He said he had never gone into what Raymond called “a significant piece of infrastructure”.

Under re-examination by Shortall, Whittall said the impact of Pike River Coal’s financial difficulties on the mine site had been “nil”.

He told reporters after the hearing that the company’s reputation had not been tarnished by evidence presented to the commission in the last fortnight. “I think it shows that the company has taken every conceivable step and employed every available consultant to provide the best possible advice…I think the company from day one has always had safety at the forefront of its way of operating.”

Today concluded the first phase of hearings on the disaster. Phase two, focusing on the search and rescue operation, begins in September.