A candlelight vigil held in Oak Hill, W. Va., on Wednesday April/AP Photo by Jon C. Hancock

When at least 25 workers died in an explosion in a West Virginia mine, it wasn't as expected as it might appear. Or perhaps as inevitable. Such tragedies seem to recur, never mind the regulators who seem to know but do too little, or the reformers who claimed after the last mishap that such things would never happen again for similar reasons.

In the month before the explosion alone, regulators cited the mine's operator for safety violations more than 50 times, including problems with ventilation and preventing deadly methane from building up. As The Washington Post reported, the mine's operator has been cited for 1,342 safety violations since 2005.

Some people might well have thought it wasn't supposed to happen again. Back in 2006, there'd been another mine explosion elsewhere in West Virginia, killing 12, and leading to extra inspectors issuing more frequent citations intended to make mining safer. Now President Obama says he's on the case and people will be talking about another round of mining reform.

The West Virginia tragedy reminds us that what politicians and bureaucrats do -- and don’t do -- directly impacts our everyday lives. Action and inaction in the corridors of power and bureaucracy can contribute to preventable harm and death.  Over decades the cycle repeats: Crisis or tragedy, headlines and hearings, scrutiny and apparent solutions. Then, one day months or years later, the preventable strikes again – and not always solely because of the forces of nature or happenstance.

As investigators scramble to document the circumstances of the Massey mine disaster, we are interested in a broader examination: Do you know more about the circumstances that could have prevented this disaster? How about factors that may have contributed - or could lead to - such mining tragedies elsewhere? Are you aware of situations in which people have been harmed, or where unsafe conditions persist, despite reforms and regulation that should have made those situations safer? 

We're looking for patterns of regulatory breakdown, sometimes involving years, like the one that led to the tragedy in West Virginia. And if you have thoughts on subjects other than mining, of course we're also interested in any area of regulation that touches our lives.

With our aggressive but fair reporting, we'll bring what we find to light in hopes that we will have an impact in making such preventable tragedies less likely to occur.