Former cop: 'Compelling' evidence conveyor belt on before Pike explosion
Wednesday, 26 September 2018
A former top cop says there is 'compelling' evidence a conveyor belt was turned on, moments before a second explosion at the Pike River mine.
The West Coast coal mine blew up for the second time on November 24, 2010, five days after the first explosion, ruling out any chance any of the 29 men inside were still alive.
Documents show police did discuss using the conveyor belt prior to the explosion to help any survivors escape the mine, but said in a statement on Wednesday they had found no information to suggest it was activated.
Former West Coast area commander Inspector John Canning told Stuff after reviewing video footage he now backed claims made by family members that the belt caused the explosion.
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'It appears to travel into the mine and there's that clunk and the belt appears to go into the mine. I'm no engineer but if the explosion caused that, why is it going into the mine rather than going out?
'When you couple that with the documentary evidence they've got about the belt and the decision leading up to it … it's a fairly compelling argument, they were thinking about it.'
Canning said one of his former colleagues told him the belt had been turned on, but admitted the allegations were 'hearsay' as the colleague was not actually part of the investigative team at the time.
Officers resisted turning on the belt initially because the first explosion happened just after the belt was turned on, he said.
'So it could've been a short in the conveyor that caused the initial explosion so we were loathe to turn it on again because if it had been the cause of the first one it would cause the second one.'
A police spokeswoman said they had not found any documentation to suggest that police or anyone else authorised the conveyor being activated, or that others activated the conveyor without police knowledge.
Document showed there were a range of discussions about activating the conveyor prior to 24 November. Central to these discussions were the risks involved.
'It is possible that the second explosion occurred before any final decision was made, meaning further discussions about activating the conveyor belt became irrelevant.'
The investigation was ongoing, and police would continue to speak to a range of people to assist in establishing if there was any basis to the 'theory'.
'If anyone has information or knowledge which can assist police on this issue then we invite them to contact us directly.'
The allegations come after Dean Dunbar, who lost his 17-year-old son Joseph in the disaster, claimed he had received leaked documents, created two hours before the second explosion, that suggested officials planned to turn on the conveyor belt.
Dunbar said police had signed off a risk assessment to turn on the conveyor belt to give any potential survivors the chance to ride it out of the mine. He said Pike River Coal management was involved in the rescue effort with police.
'This is not my theory. This all comes from documents produced by police,' he said.
Police told him experts had concluded the belt was moved by the force of the explosion, but Dunbar said he had experts who said the opposite.
He said he had seen photographs and footage showing the conveyor belt was undamaged by the first explosion but 'blown to bits' in the second, meaning it was likely to be the ignition point.
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