An Australian company has been fined US$38,300 after pleading guilty to three safety violations in a New Zealand coal mine disaster that killed 29 miners.
VLI Drilling employed three of the miners who died in the 2010 methane-fuelled explosion at the Pike River mine. A relative of one of the dead miners yelled at company officers in court on Friday as the sentence was read.
Bernie Monk, a spokesman for the relatives, says they were frustrated over the small amount of the fine and a legal technicality that prevented them from speaking during the hearing.
Labor officials say the drilling company’s methane detector was faulty at the time of the accident.
The company says it should have performed better monitoring but wasn’t responsible for the disaster.
