"As dangerous as this industry is ... there ought to be a mechanism for more significant compensation to injured miners and the families of miners who have been killed to get attention" for improved safety, Schmidt said.

Spieler said much bigger fines by MSHA might do the same. So could maybe shutting down mines that have significant repeat violations for significant periods of time.

"That is something MSHA has not been willing to do," she said. "Sometimes they shut down part of mine where a hazard exists until the hazard is resolved. But it really has done nothing about shutting down an operator with repeat violations."

Also, she said more such economic pressure could come from labor unions that often include in contracts the ability to walk out of a mine if the union feels unsafe conditions exist.

Walter Light, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has researched mine accidents, said coal mines are safe to work in "only if there is constant vigilance. It's required by all parties involved: the operator, the miners themselves and the regulatory organizations."

Less dangerous?

Amid everything, Utah coal mining had a better-than-average safety record until the Crandall Canyon disaster.

Since 2004 up to the current disaster, 192 accidents with injuries occurred in the 13 Utah mines operating and federally inspected in the period. That is a rate of 3.03 per 200,000 man-hours worked. Nationally, MSHA reported the 2006 accident rate was 4.46

Before the Crandall Mine collapse, Utah had suffered only three fatalities in coal-mine accidents since 2004. The resulting death rate was 0.05 per 200,000 hours worked, similar to the national rate of 0.04.

For the decade since 1996, Utah had 13 coal mining deaths (not counting those from the current Crandall Canyon Mine tragedy). That ranked sixth nationally among the 26 states that have coal mining.

Utah was behind West Virginia (114 deaths), Kentucky (106), Washington (34), Alabama (32) and Pennsylvania (24).

The causes of death in Utah were: accidents with powered hauling devices, six; falling of a mine roof or wall, three; explosions of gas/dust, two; drowning, one; and other machinery accident, one.

Of note, the number of coal-miner fatalities has improved astronomically in the past century amid tighter mining regulation. In 1907, 3,242 miners died nationally. In 2006, 47 did (which was the most since 1996). In 1907, about one of every 210 coal miners died that year in an accident. In 2006, one of every 2,537 coal miners died.

"Coal mining is safer now than it has ever been," MSHA's Louviere said. "Thanks to stronger mine safety laws, including sweeping legislation in 1969 and 1977, the number of coal-mining deaths has dropped dramatically."