Negligence and a failure to inspect are the key allegations in a lawsuit filed against the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) by the wives of two coal miners, Don Bragg and Ellery Hatfield, that were killed in January 2006 at Massey Energy's Aracoma Coal mine in Logan County, West Virginia.  Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield cite in the lawsuit the agency's repeated failure to cause any corrective action despite repeated citations for numerous violations includingfailure to properly train, improper mine ventilaion, faulty monitoring systems, inadequate pre-shift safety checks and unsafe accumulations of combustible materials.

Both the lawsuit and an internal report completed by the agency report on the cozy relationship that had developed between Massey Energy and agency inspectors as the blog, Coal Tattoo reports.  A copy of the internal report prepared by MSHA can be read here, and a copy of the lawsuit here.