Carol Raulston Quotations

Within the last five years the number of fatalities have been cut in half. From our perspective that's where we ought to be focused. It is what is happening to the absolute number of injuries - and the rate of injuries - that has gone down. Mining is no longer the most dangerous industry in the United States.

I think it's entirely appropriate that they take stock of where we are right now.

I think the industry has literally been shaken by this month's events. There was a broad agreement that we really needed to focus efforts, particularly looking at technology and training.

We just can't see a way to write a mining law that would appropriately regulate all of these different things and work any better.

You have to wonder how much they can strap on without impeding their work and making it hard to move around.

This is a time for all of us who share responsibility for mining safety to come together and look for ways to make mining safer. We have made dramatic improvements over the last 15 years, but there's more to be done.

The agency realized in recent years that you can't browbeat operators into improved safety, and this general approach has worked. The tragic events of this year have given everyone pause. But I don't think it means we want to abandon what we have found works.

These are expected results. Metal mining always reports trace amounts of metals we move and store.