ng deaths last year, the lowest number in its history. The toll was a stark change from 2006. Kentucky coalfields were scarred by 16 deaths that year, including five killed in the Kentucky Darby explosion, the state's worst mining disaster since 1989.
Nationwide, 33 miners died as a result of accidents, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. That compares to 47 miners who were killed in 2006, 23 killed in 2005 and 28 killed in 2004.
Kentucky officials credit new safety laws enacted after the Kentucky Darby tragedy, as well as after the Sago disaster, which killed 12 West Virginia miners in 2006.
Kentucky's drug testing program for miners -- the first of its kind in America -- went into effect in July 2006. Since then, 443 miners have been suspended. In December 2005, a 29-year-old miner died after an overloaded coal hauler severed his legs. The hauler's driver and the killed miner both tested positive for painkillers and marijuana, according to an MSHA investigation.
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