Mine Deaths Spur Hearings, Legislation

After 14 coal mining deaths in three weeks, the West Virginia Senate unanimously passed legislation Monday that would require mines to use electronic devices to track trapped miners and stockpile oxygen to keep them alive until help arrives.

The state House was expected to take up the measure later in the afternoon at the urging of Gov. Joe Manchin, who pressed lawmakers to pass the legislation by the end of the day.

"We can't afford to wait any longer," Manchin said after two miners were found dead over the weekend in a mine fire in Melville. Three weeks ago, 12 miners died after an explosion at the Sago Mine.

The plan would require companies to give miners emergency communications and tracking equipment and stock extra breathing devices throughout mines. It also creates a new quick response system and serves up stiff fines for companies if they don't immediately report an emergency.

The bodies of the latest two victims were found during the weekend after a fire deep inside a mine in southern West Virginia. Twelve others died in early January following an explosion at the Sago Mine in the northern part of the state.

The laws would require mine companies to contact a new hotline within 15 minutes of an emergency, CBS' Jennifer Donelan

"They have not died in vain. They are going to look back and say because of my dad, or because of my brother, uncle, because of my cousin, we have laws now that other people have been saved," Manchin said.

"I think it's a very important message to send to those grieving families across the state of West Virginia, and across the nation, that we are serious about mine safety," state Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin told senators after the bill was introduced. Tomblin's district includes Aracoma Coal's Alma No. 1 mine at Melville, site of last week's mine fire.

But in Washington, some lawmakers said it is unfortunate that it takes a tragedy to make mines safer, CBS News correspondent Susan Roberts reports.

"These deaths I believe were entirely preventable," Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, said Monday at a hearing in Washington on the disaster. "And we owe the families of these deceased and noble and great and brave men a hard look of what happened and why."

"It's unfortunate that every coal mine health and safety law on the books is written with the

The president of the company that operates the Sago Mine will be one of the witnesses testifying before the Senate subcommittee.

It wasn't clear if the Democratic governor could get the votes to pass the measures in a single day.

A vote to suspend the rules and pass a bill that fast would require a four-fifths vote in each chamber.

Senate Minority Leader Vic Sprouse predicted "complete Republican support," but he said that if the measures are too complex lawmakers should spend more time on them.

"I don't see people marching on the Capitol if these don't get passed in one day," said Sprouse.

Manchin's call for quick action came as the relatives of the two miners prepared for their funerals. Don I. Bragg, 33, and Ellery "Elvis" Hatfield, 47, died last week as a result of a conveyor belt fire.

In Washington, Byrd spoke at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on mine safety. Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, also planned a hearing.

Byrd criticized the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, saying he had no complaint with "the rescuers who risked their lives" trying to save trapped miners but with "the leadership in MSHA's Washington office."

The Bush administration is reviewing safety equipment in mines after scrapping similar initiatives started by the Clinton administration. Miners' advocates said pulling those initiatives stopped potentially important safety rules from becoming reality; the Republicans cited changing priorities and resource concerns.

The National Mining Association and the United Mine Workers of America said Sunday that they, too, want a major overhaul of state and federal mine safety laws.

Nationally, there were 22 mine deaths in 2005, a record low. Three of them were in West Virginia, the nation's second-largest coal producer.

If Congress takes action, it would be the third time that a West Virginia tragedy has had nationwide ramifications.

The Mine Safety and Health Act was written a year after a 1968 explosion at Farmington killed 78 miners, including an uncle of Manchin. Federal laws governing the construction of mine drainage settling ponds were adopted after 125 people where killed when an impoundment gave way in 1972, spilling a flash flood that ripped through communities along Buffalo Creek, less than 20 miles from the Alma mine.