Mine survivor: 'I think I did everything I could'

Surrounded by thick dust and the howl of a crumbling mountain, Jameson Ward had only a moment to decide: Go back and help his fellow miners or get out?
"It was like having your brights on in a fog," Ward said, recalling the Aug. 6 collapse in the Crandall Canyon mine that trapped six men. "I almost turned right back around to go in there, but then I figured, better not go into a bad situation by myself."
On Wednesday, nine days after the cave-in, concern that would-be rescuers might get hurt trying to reach the trapped men was one of many factors that kept the search effort hamstrung.
"We don't want to lose 15 more going after six," Ward said. "But there has to be a way to go faster. It's just too slow."
Ward, a 24-year-old mechanic, said he was about a quarter-mile from the trapped men when he heard the thunderous collapse. The force was unlike anything he had experienced before, with the rushing air nearly pushing his pickup truck sideways, he said.
"This was like a whistling air, lots and lots gushing toward you," he said Tuesday in his first detailed interview since the cave-in. "I went nose down and just heard it howl, thinking, `What the hell was that?" Ward, the son of a miner, said the collapse won't keep him from staying
at his $28-per-hour job. But he feels guilty about one of the trapped
miners, Brandon Phillips, a neighbor and childhood friend who got the
job with Ward's help.