Safety director reports decline in accidents
Print Edition
ACCIDENTS at work, including fatal injuries, have been declining, a senior work safety official said yesterday.
Yang Dongliang, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, told national lawmakers at their bimonthly session that there were 269,000 accidents in the first 11 months of the year, a reduction of 4.7 percent on the same period last year. Deaths were down 6.1 percent to 57,000.
His report to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee said that the number of “serious and extremely serious accidents” fell by 24.5 percent to 37 in the first 11 months and the number of deaths caused by them decreased by 18.3 percent to 685.
A 2007 regulation defines “serious accidents” as those causing 10 to 30 deaths, 50 to 100 serious injuries, or direct economic losses of between 50 million and 100 million yuan (US$15 million).
“Extremely serious accidents” kill more than 30 people, seriously injure 100, or result in over 100 million yuan of losses.
Coal mine accidents dropped by 12 percent and the death toll was down by 10.6 percent, Yang said.
He attributed the decline to better supervision and enforcement, harsher punishments, specialized work in high risk areas, including mining, rural roads and hazardous chemicals, and better infrastructure.
Since August, 453,000 inspection teams have made more than two million inspections in key areas including mining, oil-gas pipelines, and hazardous chemicals, suspending production of 7,700 enterprises with safety problems and shutting down more than 5,000 companies.
More than 1,700 small coal mines have been closed since last year, with over 2,000 due to close next year, efforts aimed at reducing the number of coal mines to fewer than 10,000 by 2016.
A total of 1,613 people held responsible for major accidents in the past 11 months have been punished, including 509 on criminal charges.
In recent years, the central government spent 3 billion yuan each year, with an additional 8.5 billion yuan coming from local governments and business, to improve coal mine gas control technology.
There is also a much better emergency response system. Currently there are seven national mine accident rescue teams, 14 regional rescue teams, 16 rescue teams set up by state-owned companies and 10 rescue training centers, Yang said.
However, he said problems remain in high-risk industries and many enterprises lack adequate safety capability. Small mines, small chemical manufacturers and firecracker producers with no safety capacity account for more than 80 percent of producers.
Some 65,000 kilometers of highways have sharp turns or steep inclines, or are beside water or cliffs without adequate protection.
Many enterprises are not well prepared for emergencies with low investment in safety and a lack of training. More than 70 percent of miners, construction workers and firecracker makers have not received safety training and often operated outside basic workplace rules.
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