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 CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Many of the safety measures state legislatures and Congress rushed to adopt to protect the 46,000 people working in the nation's underground coal mines after the Jan. 2. Sago Mine explosion have yet to take effect.
There are still no rescue chambers or wireless tracking and communications equipment in the country's 606 underground coal mines, and it's unlikely there will be until federal requirements kick in more than two years from now. Hundreds of emergency air packs that are to be stored underground — though currently required by law — are on backorder and will take months to deliver.
"You can't walk over and flip the switch and change it all in a year," said James Dean, who spent eight months as West Virginia's mine safety chief following the Sago Mine explosion. "The negative is, it's not happening fast enough."
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