Poynter.org's Leann Frola recently interviewed the Charleston (WV) Gazette's Ken Ward Jr. about his investigation into mine safety - reporting that won him the Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE) Medal.

Here are some excerpts from Frola's Q&A with Ward Jr.:

What sparked the idea for your investigation?

I've covered mine safety on and off for quite a while here, and I had it in my mind that we've needed to do a broader sort of look at it. Then in January 2006, we had the Sago Mine disaster and the fire at Aracoma.

It seemed like the right time to give that issue a closer look. They both got a lot of national media attention and both happened in fairly close connection to each other, time wise. Then in May, another disaster -- Kentucky Darby mine in eastern Kentucky -- killed five miners...

...I'd always had in my mind that we need to sit down and look at these accidents and see why they're still happening. I was able to do that last year -- to spend a lot of time examining death reports and databases -- to find out what was causing these miners still to die 40 years after the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act was passed in 1969, after the Farmington disaster. [The law was updated in 1977.]

How did you get access to the data you used?

Looking at fatality reports was just part of what I did, and that produced two lengthy stories: "One by One" -- and the other -- " 'This is what it's like to die.' "

MSHA [Mine Safety and Health Administration] posts the fatality reports on every death in every mine on its Web site. I downloaded and printed them off, and sat and read them for a couple weeks...

What technical skills did you need to do that?

It's just Microsoft Access. It's not really heavy lifting computer-assisted reporting. I just used Access and Excel. I didn't do a linear regression or any fancy stuff like that...

Click here to read Frola's Q&A with Ward Jr. in its entirety on the Poynter Institute website.