Police have located the remains of at least two more of the 29 men who died in the explosion at Pike River, one of New Zealand’s worst mining disasters.
New Zealand police are still conducting a criminal investigation into the 2010 mine explosion, and on Friday morning announced they had located “the remains of two, possibly three, miners” underground, at the site of the blast where methane gas ignited and exploded at the west coast coalmine.
The discovery came as police finish their on-site investigation of the mine, and means they have now found up to 12 of the 29 bodies.
The remains were detected via a set of boreholes drilled into the now-sealed mine, which police used to send photographic equipment in. The mine is still considered too dangerous and unstable to enter.
Rowdy Durbridge, who mined at Pike River and lost his son, Dan, in the explosion, said the discovery had brought some comfort. The police photographs indicated that the men had died immediately, he said, and not been trapped as some families had feared.
“I can take some heart in the fact that what’s been seen confirms they fell where they stood and didn’t spend days trapped in there alive,” he told New Zealand media outlet Stuff.
The police investigation continues, but no one has ever been charged with the deaths of the 29 mine workers – despite evidence that the company, Pike River Coal, ignored months of workers raising the alarm about dangerous levels of methane in the mine. A royal commission of inquiry into the disaster concluded that “there were numerous warnings of a potential catastrophe at Pike River”.
In the 48 days leading up to the disaster, workers had reported explosive levels of methane 21 times. “The warnings were not heeded,” the royal commission writes, and executives had “exposed the company’s workers to unacceptable risks”. “The drive for coal production before the mine was ready created the circumstances within which the tragedy occurred,” the royal commission said.
New Zealand’s health and safety regulator had initially laid 12 charges against Pike River Coal boss Peter Whittall, but dropped the case after the company’s insurer made a $3.41m payment to the families. The company, Pike River Coal, was found guilty of nine charges, with the judge ruling they had committed “fundamental breaches of the Health and Safety in Employment Act which led to the unnecessary deaths of 29 men”. The company declared bankruptcy and was dissolved. Whittall was charged as part of a secondary case, and had pleaded not guilty. The bargain was later judged as unlawful by New Zealand’s supreme court, but the charges were not reinstated. Thirteen years on from the disaster, some families still hope that the police investigation could result in charges against company executives.
Det Supt Darryl Sweeney said on Friday that police had not been able to identify the new bodies. “Previously, Police have been able to narrow down the possibilities based on information about where the miners were working prior to the first explosion,” he said.
“Unfortunately, in this case, we’re not able to do that.
Sweeney said police had now concluded their on-site evidence gathering, but the investigation was not yet over: “This includes working through witness statements and re-interviewing some of those involved,” he said.
