Lax safety blamed for flooding of coal mine as hopes diminish
Source: Xinhua/Shanghai Daily |
April 1, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
POOR safety measures and the ignoring of long-term warnings about an accident waiting to happen have directly led to 153 workers being trapped in a flooded coal mine in northern China's Shanxi Province.
The nation's work-safety authority made this dire declaration yesterday as hopes fade for the miners stranded underground since Sunday.
Signs of water seeping into the coal mine were first reported in early March, the Work Safety Administration said in a statement.
Reckless rushing of the work schedule was also a contributing factor, it said.
Workers building the Wangjialing Coal Mine twice alerted supervisors to leaks three hours before the accident but above-ground supervisors hung up on them.
An evacuation should have been ordered immediately after managers received the reports of water leakage, said Luo Lin, director of the State Work Safety Administration.
Managers should have evacuated miners, cut the power and suspended work at once, he said, adding that "the response should have been much faster."
Luo said these officials would be held responsible for the accident but right now the focus was on rescue efforts.
Luo and Shanxi Governor Wang Jun inspected rescue procedures yesterday at the coal mine.
They both said pumps were working smoothly and the water level was dropping more quickly.
Scuba divers might be able to contact possible survivors trapped in air pockets as early as tonight if conditions were ideal, Luo said.
"We found water leaks on March 25 and reported them to management, but there was no response," said a worker who declined to be named.
Another worker, surnamed Chen, refused to enter the pit on Saturday because digging had stopped causing dust.
"That was the sign that the flood was coming," he said.
The mine, affiliated to the state Huajin Coking Coal Co Ltd, is a project approved by the provincial government.
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