Family of New Zealand mine disaster victim ‘a step nearer to justice’

Malcolm Campbell, whose son was one of 29 men who died in the Pike River disaster in 2010, welcomed the decision by an Australian drilling firm to  accept the charges relating to the maintenance and operation of its drill rig.

The company, VLI Drilling, has been convicted of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of employees, contractors and subcontractors. The firm, which employed three of the victims, is expected to be fined up to £390,000.

Several criminal charges are still pending against the main mine operator, Pike River Coal, which employed the rest of the men.

Mr Campbell’s 25-year-old son, also Malcolm, was killed in the explosion along with fellow Scottish miner Pete Rodger, 40, of Perth.

Mr Campbell, a quarry manager from Fife, said: “We  welcome the fact someone has started to take some responsibility for what happened that day. This takes us a step nearer to justice. But this is just the start. There are lots of companies involved and they, too, have to admit there were errors.

“Ultimately what we, and all the families, want are safety reforms to the mining industry to try and prevent anything like this happening ever again.

“All we want is for those involved to hold their hands up and admit that things should have been done better and that they will learn from what happened to Malcolm and all the others.”

Mr Campbell said he and his wife, Jane, will head to New Zealand in November to mark the second anniversary of their son’s death. They have been told their son’s body is unlikely to be recovered from the area and plan to place a memorial stone at  the site.

They will meet other families who lost loved ones in the mine tragedy, after a series of methane-fuelled explosions in a network of tunnels one and a half miles deep.

Mr Campbell jnr had worked at the mine for two years and was to have married his fiancée, Amanda Shields, just a month after he was killed.

Mr Rodger, a former Perth Grammar pupil who had previously worked on oil rigs, had moved to New Zealand in 2008 to be near his mother and sister, who had emigrated there.

The New Zealand Labour Department charged three parties – Pike River Coal, its chief executive and VLI Drilling – over the incident.

To date VLI is the only firm to plead guilty and yesterday said the charges did not relate to the disaster itself, but to its failure to have a procedure in place to verify that Pike River Coal had conducted its inspections of the drilling rig.

Receivers for Pike River Coal, which was forced into bankruptcy after the disaster, say they will not enter pleas for the ten health and safety charges the company faces.

Charges against the mine’s former chief executive, Australian Peter Whittall, will be heard in October.

All 29 mine workers, aged between 17 to 62, died after being trapped in the mine, which was filled with deadly gases.