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Showing posts with label Kings Dominion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kings Dominion. Show all posts

Monday, October 28, 2013

Miners’ deaths aren’t a theme-park thrill

Today's post was shared by Jordan Barab and comes from www.washingtonpost.com

“Alone in the darkness . . . the only sound is the pulsing of your heart as the searing heat slowly boils you alive . . . It was reported to be the worst coal mine accident in history. The families of missing miners begged for help but it was decided that a rescue was too dangerous. The miners were left entombed deep underground.”
So begins the Web pitch for the new “Miner’s Revenge” maze, one of 10 haunted attractions meant to tantalize and terrorize visitors during “Halloween Haunt” at Kings Dominion amusement park in the rolling Virginia countryside about 70 miles south of Washington.
The advertisement continues: “Lamps at their sides and pick-axes in their hands they are searching for the men who left them to die . . . waiting to exact their revenge.”
I haven’t gone through the maze, and I don’t intend to, although Kings Dominion spokesman Gene Petriello offered me a free pass. That’s because Miner’s Revenge hits a little too close to home for me.
From 2010 to 2012, I spent a good bit of time researching a real coal-mine disaster for a book published last year: the massive April 5, 2010, underground blast at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal in southern West Virginia. Twenty-nine miners died in what was the worst U.S. coal-mine disaster in 40 years. Three investigations have found that the incident was the result of Massey’s...
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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Kings Dominion: Please Shut Down "Miners' Revenge" Halloween Attraction

Making a Halloween Attraction out of a fatal work disaster is in bad taste and repulsive. Today's post was shared from change.org

Kings Dominion hopes to make some big bucks this year with a Halloween attraction called “Miners’ Revenge.”

According to Kings Dominion website, which is selling tickets for $32.99, the theme of this Halloween thriller is this:

"Alone in the darkness… the only sound is the pulsing of your heart as the searing  heat slowly boils you alive… It was reported to be the worst coal mine accident in history. The families of missing miners begged for help but it was decided that a rescue was too dangerous. The miners were left entombed deep underground. Lamps at their sides and pick-axes in their hands they are searching for the men who left them to die…"

Really?

I can’t even describe my outrage reading this advertisement.

In April 2010, we had the Upper Big Branch explosion in West Virginia where rescuers desperately searched in unfathomable conditions hoping, praying to find one of the 29 Upper Big Branch miners alive.

    It was in 2007 when a mine rescue had to be abandoned at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah where six miners were trapped (and not presumed dead in the beginning). The rescue was dangerous and considered one of the most difficult in history, and then three rescuers perished trying to desperately dig to get to their mining brothers.

    It was in 2006 when we had the triple disasters of Sago, Darby and Aracoma — losing 19 miners in West Virginia  to fire and CO poisoning, rescuers braving horrific conditions looking for their lost brothers.

    In 2001 — 13 miners killed at the Jim Walters Mine in Alabama only days after 9/11. Twelve of those who perished were miners who would not leave the mine, and were trying to rescue one of their own.

    We have the 1993 Magma Mine accident in Arizona in which a half million pound raise collapsed on four miners in a copper mine.

    The 1992 South Mountain Mine disaster in West Virginia  where eight perished.
    In the 1999 Kaiser explosion in Louisana no one died, but Gary Guy was found by a fellow employee with his skin peeling off from caustic chemicals. Twenty-two were injured — 14 seriously.

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