According to the Associated Press, board member and Patriot Coal representative Terry Hudson supported a motion for more reviews and said his vote against the reform should not be viewed as a “deliberate delay”.
"We're going to be looking at this long and hard and quickly," he reportedly said.
"We need to put this on the front burner and start moving forward with it.
“I'm not trying to delay but we need to work on this."
The roadblock came despite support from union interests.
The US Mine Safety and Health Administration has reported that 30 miners were killed and 200 were injured nationwide between 1984 and 2010 by being crushed, pinned or struck by continuous mining machines underground.
One pending federal rule would require shutdown systems on continuous mining machines.
Another, stalled at the Office of Management and Budget in the White House for more than two years, would address all other mobile equipment.
