Kentucky reaches low in coal-mine deaths

Kentucky, the state with the most coal mines, recorded two mining deaths last year, the lowest number in its history.

The toll was a stark change from 2006. Kentucky coalfields were scarred by 16 deaths that year, including five killed in the Kentucky Darby explosion, the state's worst mining disaster since 1989.

Nationwide, 33 miners died as a result of accidents, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. That compares to 47 miners who were killed in 2006, 23 killed in 2005 and 28 killed in 2004.

Kentucky officials credit new safety laws enacted after the Kentucky Darby tragedy, as well as after the Sago disaster, which killed 12 West Virginia miners in 2006.

"This is a positive indication that the new mine safety laws, including Kentucky's new drug testing program, are having the desired effect," said Natural Resources Commissioner Susan Bush.

Kentucky's drug testing program for miners — the first of its kind in the nation — went into effect in July 2006. Since then, 443 miners have been suspended.

In December 2005, a 29-year-old miner died after an overloaded coal hauler severed his legs. The hauler's driver and the killed miner both tested positive for painkillers and marijuana, according to an MSHA investigation.

Kentucky has the second-largest mining work force and is the nation's third-largest producer of coal.

State records dating to 1890 indicate that the deadliest decade in mining was the 1920s, when 1,614 fatalities reported. Since then, the number has decreased with each decade, including 242 in the 1980s, 117 in the 1990s and 61 since 2000.

Utah led the nation with 10 deaths in 2007. West Virginia, Appalachia's top coal producer, had nine.

In the nation's worst mine disaster last year, six miners were entombed when Utah's Crandall Canyon mine collapsed. Ten days later, another collapse killed three people trying to rescue the miners; those three are included in Utah's total.