Each entry states the natural misreading, the verified fact, and what we
do about it here. The looks like and
actually markers are the
whole grammar of this page.
01
Vacated and withdrawn citations disappear from the violations file
22,634citations exist only in the contest file
looks like The violations file is the complete count of citations issued.
actually When a citation is vacated or the action withdrawn, MSHA deletes it from the Violations dataset. Its only public trace is the Contested Violations file — so violations-file counts are net of vacaturs, and reconciliations against SEC mine-safety disclosures can legitimately differ by exactly these rows.
On this site: contest sections count vacated and withdrawn citations from the contest record, and per-company attribution notes where that record runs slightly under.
02
A contest's final classification exists only for settlements and prevails
59,320decided contests carry no re-classification
looks like The "decided" columns say whether the S&S designation survived every contest.
actually MSHA re-classifies only settlements and prevails. A dismissed or defaulted contest leaves the citation standing exactly as issued; a vacated or withdrawn citation no longer exists. Neither carries decided columns — reading them alone silently drops sixty thousand decided contests.
On this site: S&S survival counts a designation as surviving when a settlement or decision kept it, or the contest died and the citation stands as issued.
03
MSHA's two contest files disagree about proposed penalties
8,464joined rows disagree on the amount
looks like Two federal files about the same contest state the same proposed penalty.
actually Most of the gap is the dockets file holding no value at all; the rest is consistent with the two files capturing the amount at different moments. Their decided amounts agree better than 99.9%.
On this site: penalty-at-contest figures come from the Contested Violations file, the more complete of the two.
04
The current year's proposed penalties always look low
~24%of the live year is unassessed
looks like Enforcement dollars collapsed this year.
actually MSHA proposes a penalty months after a citation issues, so roughly a quarter of the in-progress year has no amount yet. The dip is assessment lag, not policy.
On this site: an in-progress year's penalty total is never presented as comparable to a closed year.
05
"Proposed" is not "paid", and the delinquency date is not delinquency
100%of assessments carry a delinquency date
looks like A populated delinquency date means an unpaid penalty.
actually The date is populated on every assessment, including fully paid ones — MSHA's own documentation warns against reading it alone. The honest unpaid signal is the currently assessed amount minus the paid amount.
On this site: penalty cards show proposed, assessed, and paid separately; "outstanding" is computed from the difference, never from that date.
06
A zero exposure limit on a health sample is not compliance
39%of personal samples have no limit at all
looks like A concentration-over-limit ratio of zero is a clean result.
actually Those rows are screening measurements of substances with no applicable limit. Averaging the ratio over all samples fakes compliance for four rows in ten.
On this site: every over-limit figure uses only limit-tested samples, and the denominator is stated beside it.
07
Coal and metal/nonmetal exposure records live in different files
2halves of the industry, two file families
looks like The dust, quartz, and noise files cover mining.
actually Those cover coal almost exclusively. Metal and nonmetal exposure — including its silica record — lives in the Personal Health Samples and Area Samples files. Neither family is a subset of the other; a silica analysis from the quartz file alone covers half the industry.
On this site: mine pages show the coal axes and the metal/nonmetal axes side by side, from their respective files.
08
The coal/metal flag on a citation is the inspecting office, not the mine
looks like The violations file's coal/metal indicator classifies the mine.
actually It records which MSHA program area issued the citation, and districts cross-inspect — classifying mines by this flag misfiles thousands of citations.
On this site: a mine's commodity always comes from the mines dataset, never from the citation row.
09
Accident counts are not comparable across the year 2000
1983coverage starts; the file format breaks at 2000
looks like Accidents dropped sharply in 2000.
actually MSHA's archived pre-2000 files include reportable no-injury accidents — roof falls and ignitions that hurt no one — which the modern bulk file largely omits, so raw counts step down artificially at the boundary. Fatality counts are consistent across the whole period.
On this site: trend surfaces either use fatalities or stay within one era, and the coverage note on the about page states the boundary.
10
A "pattern of violations" is almost never on MSHA's list
9POV notices in fifteen years
looks like If an operator had a pattern, MSHA's Pattern of Violations list would say so.
actually The formal designation has been issued nine times in fifteen years; one is in effect today. A pattern argument is nearly always built from the citation record itself — the same violation at the same mine over time.
On this site: POV status appears when it exists, and entity pages carry the citation history the argument is actually made from.