Please keep western Kentucky in your thoughts and prayers today.

One miner has been found dead, while another is missing after a mine roof collapsed Wednesday night at 10pm. The accident occurred at Alliance Resource Partners’ Dotiki Mine in Webster County, and rescue efforts are underway.

The Dotiki mine has received 2,973 citations over the past five years and was cited 649 times in 2009. Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine, which took the lives of 29 miners on April 5, received 458 citations in 2009.

Congressman Nick Rahall, Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and long time leader in protecting miner safety, represents the district where the Upper Big Branch accident occurred. He recently said, “there is still much more that must be done to protect those who enter the mines each day working to support their families.”

You have been instrumental in the recent victories to protect Appalachian communities from the permitting of new mountaintop removal mines. While there’s much that still needs to be done to end mountaintop removal permanently, today we ask you to help protect those communities in a different way.

Will you please take a moment to sign this letter supporting Congressman Rahall’s efforts to strengthen protections for our nation’s coal miners?

Learn more about the Dotiki Mine accident from Jeff Biggers and/or the Herald-Leader.
Learn more about Alliance’s dismal safety record from Coal Tattoo.