Safety 'lax' in tunnel collapse

By Lydia Chen  |   2008-11-20  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

CHINA'S top work safety supervisor has criticized local governments for sloppy supervision, claiming it was one of the reasons behind the collapse of a subway tunnel under construction in Hangzhou that left eight dead and 13 missing.

Initial probes into Saturday's accident revealed that contractors didn't follow safety guidelines while local government supervision was lax, the State Administration of Work Safety said.

Potential work safety loopholes were not handled thoroughly or quickly while contractors did not offer safety training to workers and management at the site was chaotic, the administration said.

Investigators also found Shanghai Tongji Construction Supervision Co was the supervisor for the Xianghu Station section on Metro Line 1 in the provincial capital of Zhejiang. It was designed by Beijing Urban Construction and Design and contracted to China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Co, a unit of China Railway Construction Group Co, according to the statement.

The statement did not say the companies were responsible for the accident or how the government would punish offenders.

A 75-meter-wide section of the subway tunnel collapsed at 3:20pm on Saturday, creating a huge crater in the road that trapped 11 vehicles.

The collapse on Fengqing Avenue, Xiaoshan District, trapped at least 50 workers. The vehicles have all been removed with no casualties to the drivers or passengers. A total of 24 workers were taken to hospital, where 13 remained.

Rescue operations were ongoing, the statement said.

Safety checks on construction projects would be stepped up nationwide to root out potential hazards, the statement said. On April 1, three workers were killed while another two were injured in a cave-in accident at a construction site on Metro Line 3 in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province.

And on March 28, 2007, a cave-in killed six workers during construction of Metro Line 10 in Beijing.