Franklin J. Reed, Division Director of Safety Analysis, Training and Certification
The Mine Safety Analysis Division and the Training, Education and Certification Division were combined in 2004 to create the Safety Analysis, Training and Certification Division. Each of the six district offices throughout the Commonwealth are staffed with underground and surface mine safety analysts as well as training instructors.
The primary responsibility of the safety analysts is to prevent mine accidents and fatalities by observing and evaluating the work habits of miners while at the same time providing on‑the‑job counseling to the individual miner and assisting in correcting any unsafe or potentially hazardous actions. The primary responsibility of the instructor is to conduct professional-level miner training and develop programs from prepared course outlines and scripts. The Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing is the only agency in the nation that has a mine safety analyst program.
Studies have demonstrated that by providing quality training and performing on-the-job safety analysis to miners brings about a significant reduction in underground and surface accidents and fatalities.
The following mining courses are provided in each of the six district offices lead by qualified instructors on a daily basis:
- 24-Hour Inexperienced Surface Miner
- 40-Hour Inexperienced Underground Miner
- Initial Underground and Surface Foreman
- Annual Retraining for Underground and Surface Foreman
- Initial Mine Emergency Technician
- Annual Retraining for Surface and Underground Miner
- CPR
- Electrical
- Shot Firer/Conventional and Solid Blasting
By conducting on-the-job safety analysis and performing quality miner training, the division feels that miners will work safer and become more productive. The division will continue its relentless efforts in protecting the coal industry's No. 1 resource, the miner.