Last week, several salt miners were trapped in a New York mine overnight in freezing temperatures. Thankfully the seventeen miners were rescued from the mine the next day and none of them suffered any serious injuries. Last week also marked the 10^th Anniversary of the Sago Mine Disaster, a collapse in a West Virginia mine that claimed the lives of twelve miners. In this most recent situation disaster was avoided, but it was a reminder of the dangers that miners face.

Workers taking an elevator down into the mine around 10 p.m. on Wednesday night found themselves stuck when the elevator stopped suddenly. They were 90 stories below and were stuck overnight in cold weather, and this lift was also an air intake route for the mine so they had cold air rushing around them all night. Rescue crews lowered down heating pads and blankets to try to keep them warm and the rescuers managed to pull them out with a crane and a basket that took several miners back up at a time. They crane was in a place 30 miles away which is why it took so long for them to get to the men. Those who were already in the mine when the elevator broke got out through another route.

Five days before this event, a circuit breaker had knocked out the elevator. No one was in the mine at the time and the elevator went on a test trip without passengers before resuming activity. Investigators said they think that a beam which aligns the elevator car and the elevator shaft was bent, causing it to be stuck. They did not think the problem was caused by overloading. Still, they are going to stop operations at the mine until they can determine what happened and fix the problem with this lift.

This mine produces almost 2 million tons of road salt every year. Generally salt mines are not as dangerous as coal mines as they do not have to deal with methane gas or coal dust hazards, but they can still be dangerous and susceptible to cave-ins or accidents involving large pieces of machinery.