Congressional Digest

Excerpt

(Excerpted from Congressional Digest, January 2008)

On January 2, 2006, an explosion ripped through the Sago
mine in Upshur County, West Virginia, trapping 13 miners
underground; only one person was brought up alive. Two
weeks later, a fire at a mine in another West Virginia county
killed two miners, and on May 20, 2006, five miners lost
their lives in a mine explosion in Harlan Country, Kentucky.
By the end of 2006, 47 miners had died on the job — a 10-
year high and more than twice the number of deaths in 2005.
These accidents were a grim reminder that mining is
still one of the most dangerous occupatio…