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Kentucky’s smallest coal companies would get a reprieve from a year-old mine safety law under legislation pending in the General Assembly.

The measure would relieve companies that employ fewer than 10 miners from having to keep two certified mine medics on duty during working hours.

Ancel Smith, D-Leburn, said the requirement adopted by the General Assembly last year created some unforeseen hardships.

“I’m just trying to help some small people here who are trying to survive” financially, Smith said. “It won’t hinder the safety.”

Lawmakers, reacting to the deaths of 16 miners in 2006, passed a law early last year to provide additional safety protections.

The law requires state mine inspectors to double the number of visits they make to underground operations, puts methane gas detectors in the hands of all work crews and mandates that companies keep a vehicle close to work crews to haul injured miners to the surface in case of accidents.