Number of accidents at mines growing due to reduced number of inspectors

The State Service for Mining Supervision and Industrial Safety has said the increase in the number of injuries at mines is due to the reduction in the number of mine inspectors.

According to a posting on the regulator’s Web site, with reference to its head Oleksandr Khokhotva, over 350 mining professionals had been carrying out state monitoring of the coal sector until February 2011, but now their number has fallen to 231 inspectors.

"Each inspector monitors eight or ten mines, and even more mines in some regions," reads a statement.

"It should be mentioned that the professional level of inspectors remains relatively high, and the evidence is [that the rise in accidents is due to] the rise in monitoring rates per inspector," the regulator head said.

Khokhotva said he believed that certain measures should be taken to reduce the number of accidents at coalmines.

"To stabilize the situation, we must [increase] the number of inspectors in the coal mining regions, including in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Lviv," he said. Along with this, every large mine should have its own inspector, he said.