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You know, we have freedom of speech, and I'm allowed to say what I
think, and its my opinion that profits were put before safety. If
anyone is to blame for this disaster it was the National Coal Board.
Evidence was given on everything from the history of mining in the
area to the region's geological conditions. Those who took the stand
were as varied as schoolboys and university professors. It emerged
that there had long been local worries over the stability of the
tip, that the chairman of the NCB's claim that the spring underneath
the tip had not been known about was simply not true and that the
coal board had no kind of tipping policy at all.
Lord Robens, the NCB chairman, appeared dramatically in the final
days of the Tribunal to give evidence and admitted that the coal
board had been at fault. Had this admission been made at the
beginning of the inquiry, much of what followed at the Tribunal
would have been unnecessary. The Tribunal retired on the 28th of
April 1967 to consider its verdict.
When the Report was published on August 3rd 1967 it had no qualms
about making perfectly clear who was to blame. The Aberfan Disaster
is a terrifying tale of bungling ineptitude by many men charged with
tasks for which they were totally unfitted, of failure to heed clear
warnings, and of total lack of direction from above. Not villains
but decent men, led astray by foolishness or by ignorance or by both
in combination, are responsible for what happened at Aberfan.
Aberfan Coal Mines
Slag Heap Shale
Cracks Land Slide
Farm Cottage
Pantglas School
Tribunal Ncb
Fund
Aberfan Today |
