ABSTRACT
In 1966, a portion of a coal mine tip (unusable material dug up in the process of mining coal) on a mountainside near Aberfan, South Wales, slid down into the village and engulfed its school. 144 people were killed, including 116 children. The post-disaster inquiry waded into a morass of commissions and bodies and agencies and parties responsible (or not) for the various aspects of running a coal mine, including the National Coal Board, the National Union of Mineworkers, the local Borough Council, the local Planning Committee, the Borough’s engineering office, the Commission on Safety in Mines, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Mines and Quarries and a local Member of Parliament. Collectively, there was a belief that tips posed no danger; that mining was dangerous for other reasons (which were generally believed to be well-controlled through these multifarious administrative and regulatory arrangements). While danger in the tip grew, the belief that everything was okay remained in place. Until the tip slid into the village.
