Communities, Welcome to Black Mountain, Virginia
This accident cost too much to go unnoticed
Friday, November 16th, 2007
Description: On the border between Kentucky and Virginia, about one mile away from Pardee, in Wise County, VA
Home is defined as “a place where a person can find refuge and safety; it is a place to live in security.” Appalachia, Virginia residents Dennis Davidson and his wife Cindy Davidson, worked hard to provide a home for their two sons, Jeremy and Zachary. Despite their efforts to create both security and safety for their boys, the Davidson’s home was destroyed on August 19, 2004.
Jeremy, their youngest son, was asleep in his room when a half-ton boulder plummeted through his bedroom wall. The dislodged boulder, which had fallen 649 feet, flattened a path across the bed where Jeremy lay. In an instant, the boulder killed young Jeremy’s future and crushed his parents’ and many Virginians’ hearts. Jeremy was three-years-old.
The A&G Coal Corp, a strip mining operation, was responsible for the displaced boulder. According to officials, a bulldozer operator working the night shift for A & G Coal Corp unknowingly knocked the boulder loose. The employee was working above and directly behind the Davidson’s home to widen “a road to handle 18-wheel coal hauling trucks at a mine called Strip Number 13.”
Accidents do happen, but a heartbroken family and a mass of angry Virginians concluded that this accident cost too much to go unnoticed. Many Virginians continue to be outraged by the effect that strip-mining has on their communities and lives.
“The death of an innocent child, who had nothing to do with what’s going on, has brought us together,” said Carl “Pete” Ramey, a coal miner turned anti-strip-mining activist. “I think a lot of people feel guilty they didn’t do something before.”
However, due to the United States escalating demand for coal, the population of strip mines continues to increase in regions of Virginia and West Virginia. Such demand has made neighborhoods, like the Davidson’s, land mines for locals to live in.
Click here to learn more about Black Mountain, VA and the communities that live nearby.
Summary contributed by Angie Delynn Ryan courtesy of Appalachian Voices.
