Government officials on Friday indefinitely halted their attempts to dig to six miners trapped since Aug. 6, after a cave-in Thursday night killed three rescuers and injured six others.

House Education and Labor Committee chairman Rep. George Miller and Rep. Lynn Woolsey, both California Democrats, vowed to convene hearings about the disaster "at the appropriate time," and Utah lawmakers also promised tough questions.

"We're going to see changes in this industry because of this accident," said Ellen Smith, owner of the industry newsletter Mine Safety and Health News. "There is no doubt."

Mine Safety and Health Administration director Richard Stickler had already come under fire for being slow to take public control of the scene.

Even though Stickler's agency is supposed to be in charge, the mine's colorful co-owner, Bob Murray, has dominated news conferences, narrated video of rescue efforts for TV news and - despite safety concerns - personally led reporters and family members on a tour of his mine.

The fact that MSHA let anyone, including rescuers, into the still-dangerous mine is raising new questions. Others also predict greater scrutiny of the agency's decision to allow mining at Crandall Canyon at all, given what it knew about conditions that made the mine particularly unstable.

"Despite misleading and self-serving comments to the contrary ... these miners' lives were jeopardized because of the acts of men," United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts said Friday. He expressed doubts about whether MSHA and the mine's owners "fulfilled their responsibilities" to keep the miners and their rescuers safe.

Three high-profile accidents, including Sago, where 12 of 13 miners were killed, helped make 2006 the deadliest for coal mining in 11 years. The 47 deaths that year triggered sweeping changes to the nation's coal mining laws.

Observers of the Crandall Canyon accident have criticized MSHA for not heeding a key provision of the new, post-Sago law, which requires the government to be the primary communicator with the mine operator, the media and the public when an accident occurs.

The goal was to prevent a repeat of the confusing and conflicting information that was given at Sago. After anxious hours of waiting for a rescue there, family members were told their loved ones were found alive - only to be told three hours later that all but one were dead.

Observers say they have heard echoes of Sago in the way Murray has upstaged Stickler at news conferences since the first day.

Lawmakers have noted that it took MSHA at least two days to take public control of the scene. Others were irate that Murray was allowed to publicly predict success - and contradict MSHA itself - while agency officials quietly looked on.

For example, Murray has insisted that an earthquake caused the initial collapse, while government seismologists say the ground shaking was caused by the cave-in itself.

"It makes MSHA look bad," said Tony Oppegard, a former top federal and state of Kentucky mine safety official who now represents miners as a private attorney in Lexington, Ky.