MSHA assistant secretary Dave Lauriski and West Virginia Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training director Doug Conaway announced the joint effort last week at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beckley, West Virginia.
"Although overall mining fatalities have decreased for three consecutive years nationwide, MSHA is greatly concerned with any incident that results in death or injury and wants to work cooperatively with state officials to coordinate our efforts, resources and energy in the interest of sending every West Virginia miner home safe and healthy after each shift," Lauriski said.
”Each member of the West Virginia mining community must evaluate and review their contribution to improving our mine safety efforts," Conaway said.
The two organizations will combine efforts to reach out to industry and labor for input on ideas to increase awareness of mining hazards in the workplace, to solicit best practices from organizations within the industry for alleviating hazards and to call attention to problems that "near-miss" incidents can reveal in the workplace.
The two entities kicked off the new partnership with a series of phone calls Tuesday to mine operators and union representatives to share concerns about the kinds of accidents occurring in West Virginia.
