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Frequent Accidents Cause Concern in China
The frequent occurrence of fatal traffic and industrial accidents in China in the first half of this year has alarmed top leaders and the public.
The tragic shipwreck off the coast of eastern Yantai City last November, in which 280 people were killed or remain missing, did little to prevent the increase of major accidents in the country this year, despite repeated instructions from the Chinese leadership and great efforts made by governments at different levels to stress safety in transportation and production.
On March 11, an explosion at a private fireworks plant left 33 dead, while on June 30, a blast at a Hong Kong-funded fireworks factory killed 38 workers.
On June 22 alone, 130 people died when their passenger vessel capsized on the Hejiang River in southwestern Sichuan Province, and in a separate incident and 47 passengers and crew members were killed in an aircraft accident in Wuhan, the provincial capital of central Hubei.
In the first six months of this year, 42 major industrial accidents were reported, each costing 10 or more lives, and ending in the deaths of 699 people, according to Zhang Junjiu, a vice-chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
In 1999, China reported 180,000 fires, killing over 2,700 people, statistics that went up 40 percent and 15 percent respectively over the figures of 1998. In the first four months of this year, fires resulted in a death toll of 142 and injured 105, up 97 percent and 50 percent over the previous year.
Official figures also show that in recent years, accidents of various kinds led to a death toll of almost 100,000 people annually. Between 1996-99, industrial units across the country experienced 388 serious accidents that took 356 lives.
Investigations show that most of the accidents took place in overseas-funded, private or collectively-funded factories, and most were caused by negligence, such as overloading of vehicles/vessels by transporters, violations of rules, lack of preventive measures, and poor management.
China loses tens of billions of yuan due to accidents of various kinds every year, most of which are cause by mismanagement of authorities, the statistics indicate.
Meanwhile, some enterprises have overlooked official rules and regulations and the importance of safety; others are derelict in their duty or are ignoring the possibility of legal punishment.
The central leadership has ordered that those who are directly or indirectly responsible for the occurrence of accidents be dealt with severely.
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