Another safe year in coal mining with record low 9 deaths

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The nation's coal mines are nearing a record low mark for on-the-job deaths for the third year in a row and have a chance to keep the number of fatal accidents in single digits for the first time.

With just a day left in 2016, U.S. coal mines have recorded nine deaths. West Virginia had four, Kentucky had two and there was one each in Alabama, Illinois and Pennsylvania. The low number can be attributed to far fewer coal mining jobs and tougher enforcement of mining safety rules.

"We know consistently things are getting better," Mine Safety and Health Administration chief Joe Main said.

Industry cooperation has been crucial to making mines safer, he said, and "the angst that mine operators have with what (violations) we cite is dissipating as well."

Dozens of mines have shuttered in recent years, especially in Appalachia. In 2011, there were about 91,000 working miners in the U.S. compared with 2015 when there were about 66,000, the lowest figure since the Energy Information Administration began collecting data in 1978. The 2016 numbers are not yet available.

Fewer mines and a smaller workforce amounts to fewer deaths and injuries, but Main noted that in 2011 – before employment numbers started to drop – a low mark was set for fatalities at 20. That was also a year after the deadly explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia killed 29 miners.