The headlines seem ripped from the pages of history. &8220;Trapped miners found dead.&8221;

A rash of deadly coal mine accidents across the country continued last weekend. Saturday&8217;s accident claimed the lives of five Kentucky coal miners.

Digging deep into the earth and pulling out coal has never been a particularly safe line of work. Mining is always fraught with danger and risk.

But the real tragedy is it appears that many of those who died deep within the earth died not because of the initial explosions but rather because proper safety systems were not in place.

The systems appear to have met the legal minimum requirement, but initial reports show that a number of the self-contained oxygen supplies failed to work properly or simply did not provide enough time for rescuers to reach the victims.

We&8217;re living in one of the most developed countries in the world. We should have state-of-the-art safety facilities.

Coal mining, while a seemingly dirty undesirable job for many of us, is critical to our nation&8217;s energy production. It&8217;s one of the few fossil fuels that the United States can mine and utilize without importation.

A number of state and federal agencies have already begun taking steps to improve the minimum safety standards already in place. Everyone involved should review those revised standards and ask, &8220;Is this enough? Would I feel safe in a coal mine?&8221;

If the answer is no, more stringent laws are needed before another life is lost.