Mines are dangerous places, where safety must be a priority

Mining coal is an inherently dangerous job, and Americans manage to do it with a far higher degree of safety than almost anywhere else.

With 25 known dead from the explosion this week at the Massey Energy Co.’s Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal, W. Va., there have been 64 coal mining deaths in accidents with five or more fatalities this decade. Far more have died in solitary accidents, with 34 miners dying in 2009.

By contrast, China had what could be considered a good year in 2009, when 2,631 died in that country’s mines. In 2002, nearly 7,000 died.

Those numbers are no consolation to the families of the dead and missing in West Virginia. Nor is there solace in knowing that it has been a quarter century since a U.S. mine accident took so many lives.

But even worse, the fact that every few years a dozen or more miners die in dramatic explosions or cave-ins suggests that safety oversight of U.S. mines peaks in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy and then wanes.

Every time a mine tragedy gets into the headlines, there is an investigation, but consider some of the results. In 2006, when 12 miners died at the Sago mine near Tallmansville, W. Va., the cause of the explosion was never determined. The likely cause was attributed to a powerful lightning strike.

Attempts in Congress to strengthen the hand of the Mine Safety and Health Administration in dealing with safety failures in mines stalled.

Four years earlier, 13 miners died in an explosion in a mine in Brookwood, Ala., after which the MSHA levied a fine of $435,000 against the mine operator, citing multiple violations. An administrative law judge reduced the fine to $3,000, ruling that the MSHA did not prove safety violations had occurred.

What comes next

In the wake of the Upper Big Branch explosion there will again be inquiries into whether the MSHA’s failure to act more forcefully on dozens of reported violations at the mine contributed to the disaster. And there will doubtless by congressional hearings, likely in both the House and the Senate. In West Virginia, where coal remains a powerful political force and where no company is more influential than Massey Energy, safety questions will be asked, but against a realistic backdrop. Coal feeds the state’s economy, it provides good-paying though hazardous jobs and the industry is enjoying a moderate resurgence.

While accidents will happen, it is the job of the MSHA to minimize the likelihood of accidents through tough oversight, without being unreasonable. Papering the walls with meaningless citations does no one any good. Toothless enforcement fosters a false sense of security and, history shows, leads inevitably to the next tragedy.