“When somebody higher up [is] telling you to do something, you’re going to do what they say.”

This statement was made by Ricky Lee Campbell, a 24-year-old coal shuttle driver and roof bolter who worked at the Massey Mine in West Virginia before a blast took the lives of nearly 30 workers there.

He’s referring to another worker who was asked by a manager to disable a methane gas monitor that measured dangerous toxins. The move appears to be a major violation in safety protocol, but Campbell is making excuses for the guy who followed the dumb orders that were driven by business sense, not common sense.

Campbell witnessed the incident. He talked about it in a radio broadcast this morning of an NPR investigation of the Massey tragedy that uncovered the incident:

“He knew it was dangerous. He knew he shouldn’t have been doing it. But when somebody higher up [is] telling you to do something, you’re going to do what they say. And he just [did] his job and [did] what they said to do.”

This mentality is not unusual. (more…)