Westray

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  I didn't realize that a movie had been made. I would have liked to been interviewed. I worked in Coal Lab on May 6th completed the coal dust test and was first hand witness to what can be only described the the criminal response of Parry and Phillips when I phoned in results of the 4 samples that were brought to my lab., For some reason I was never called to testify at inquiry although I was supposed to be called to testify for prosecution. I will sit down to watch this movie at some point soon. It has been 20 years since this happened and this is still raw for me. After being confronted by mine management on May 6th and being accused of not following proper protocol they left convinced I was wrong. They had at the time two options when they left lab. Either prove I was wrong or shut the mine down and clean it up. They did neither and when they made that choice it in my opinion became criminal. I have over the years read many articles focusing on improperly function methane detectors and their impact on explosion. It may or may not have been primary source of ignition. In my opinion however this was only used by government officials and mine managers as a smokesrceen to keep everyone from focusing on what happened on May 6th. I say this because in September of that year I was interviewed by the lead investigator of Labour Department, who was investigating for possble violations. He told me straight up that he didn't trust some of the people for which he was working. I did have opportunity to be interviewed for 5th estate piece in months after explosion but was afraid of repercussion for myself and family, a decision I now regret. Twenty years on I wish I had done so as I think it would have made difference in how this played out in the public forum. I did everything I could after explosion to expose this by going to police and making statement without conditions. My only regret in all this was not telling Robbie Doyle and Larry Bell on May 6th what happened that day when they arrived at work for night shift. I don't think it would have been a surprise to them but they should have known the risks. I spoke to both of them before leaving lab but it was end of 12 hour shift, my last one before explosion, I was tired and sadly naive thinking that people in charge were going to do right thing and fix problem. Rob T

  antigonishfree, 30 Apr 2012

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  This film Westray is a required assignment to watch for N.S.C.C. Academic English. I find it distrubing in watching the film in of Westray. It's distrubing to me so many people had accidents and injuries, and some even lost their lives. As this assignment deals with the Worker's Compensation Board, I am curious to do some research on this particular incident and and if there are any workers, or worker's families form Westray that had suffered personal injuries or Death that had filed claims with the W.C.B., and if they had filed a claim with the Worker's Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, what were their experiences. Was the W.C.B. of N.S. helpful? I sincerely with you all the best.

  dmmackay, 15 Nov 2011

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  As one of the requirement for N.S.C.C. it to watch this film; I am wondering about all the people who's lives were affected with this tragidy. In particular I am wondering who was injured as a result of their work, and if any had gone to the Worker's Compensation Board of Nova Scotia; and what help did they get? dmmackay@hotmail.com

  dmmackay, 9 Nov 2011

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