If counting dead miners becomes politicized, God help the survivors. It looks suspiciously as if the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration may be trying to hold down the mining death count to give the appearance that it's improving safety.

MSHA set a goal in 2001 of reducing mining fatalities by 15 percent a year for four years. Obviously, the best way to achieve that is through better practices and safer working conditions. Instead of excluding deaths from the official count when there's a possible reason to do so, MSHA should be including them so the circumstances may be thoroughly investigated and used to prevent subsequent fatalities.

Post-Gazette staff writer Steve Twedt revealed in last Sunday's editions that in recent years MSHA has declined to include in its "chargeable," or work-related, count some deaths that perhaps belonged there.

In 2004, for example, MSHA excluded the death of Forrest Riley Sr., 54, at a Dallas, W.Va., coal mine. He drove a battery tractor over a pipe, propelling it through an opening in the operator's cab. It struck Mr. Riley on his left side and pinned him inside.

The medical examiner's report said Mr. Riley's injuries cannot be entirely excluded as a contributory cause of his death by heart attack. An MSHA spokesperson said the agency didn't count Mr. Riley's death as work-related because the medical examiner said he believed the heart attack probably precipitated the accident. But there's no mention of that in the report.

Two days after the Post-Gazette article, the new director of MSHA, Richard Stickler, issued a statement directing the agency to review the criteria it uses to determine which deaths to consider work-related. That's good, but he should seek to have the federal agency take a more inclusive approach to counting.

Broad standards make it more likely that mine safety agencies will work harder to find out what really went wrong. If it faces up to fatalities that were even partially work-related, the agency can order changes in practices that could prevent similar deaths in the future.

More investigations can prevent deaths and, over the long haul, reduce the annual counts. Denying that deaths occurred as a result of mine accidents does nothing to make this hazardous industry any safer.