Although mine workers took almost an hour to call Emery County 911 after the Aug. 6 Crandall Canyon Mine cave-in, they most likely followed federal protocols.

Within 15 minutes of any collapse, a supervisor is required to contact a Mine Safety and Health Administration hotline located in Chantilly, Va. An initial review by MSHA officials indicates the mine likely made that call in time. That phone call alerts federal authorities about the accident and ensures rescue teams are mobilized.

Establishment of the hotline was one of the changes made to mine safety laws in 2006, following the Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia. Other changes required that at least two emergency rescue teams be available within an hour of the mine, a requirement the Crandall Canyon Mine successfully met.

"That is a coal mine operator's equivalent to a 911 call," said Kevin Stricklin, MSHA administrator of Coal Mine Safety and Health. "They have to report it immediately."

Emery County Sheriff dispatch tapes distributed to the media Monday revealed the first call actually came from the director of the University of Utah's seismograph stations, Walter Arabasz, at 3:44 a.m. Aug. 6. He called the dispatcher, not the emergency 911 line, to report the seismograph stations had registered a 4.0 magnitude earthquake that was probably a "coal mining-related event" at 2:48 a.m.

Three minutes later, a mine worker named Mark Toomer called 911, saying there had been a cave-in and the mine "probably" was going to need an ambulance.

Stricklin said Tuesday the delay in calling the local emergency response officials was not a concern. As long as the mine met the requirement to contact MSHA within 15 minutes — the exact time of the call will be determined as part of the agency's investigation into the disaster — it adhered to the law.

He also said the agency takes into consideration other elements, such as who was present and where the collapse happened in the mine. In some cases, 15 minutes is not a reasonable requirement.

"Naturally, you have to give a miner time to call from underground to tell somebody to call MSHA," he said.

It probably would not have made much difference if the mine workers had called 911, since Emery County does not conduct mine rescues with its search and rescue teams, Sheriff Lamar Guymon said. Instead, those rescues are handled by the mines, and the sheriff only provides medical and logistical assistance outside the mine.

He said the call for ambulances probably was not made immediately because mine officials did not know if miners were trapped or if they could be rescued.

"I'm sure that if somebody came out and said they knew people were trapped, that call would have been different," Guymon said. His impression of the call from Toomer was that "he did not know exactly what happened."

Phil Smith, spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, said that the 2006 law was passed because of lessons learned at the Sago Mine. While he did not know if it would have made a difference, since no miners have been found, it did seem like the call should have been made sooner.

"An hour seems like a long time to wait," he said.

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E-mail: jloftin@desnews.com