Shanghai: China is starting inspections of all
its showcase bullet train lines following a crash last month
that killed 40 people, as authorities work to determine who is
ultimately responsible for the disaster.
The State Administration of Work Safety will present a
report on the July 23 crash to China`s top leaders in
September, the agency`s spokesman Huang Yi said in comments
today on its website.
"Of course, a period of analysis is required to determine
both the direct and indirect factors behind the crash and to
work out who is responsible," Huang said.
The monthlong inspections of 49 projects and 6,000
kilometers of bullet train lines and projects will run through
the middle of September, and train operations and construction
will be suspended if safety problems are found, officials say.
In the crash last month near the city of Wenzhou in
eastern China`s Zhejiang province, a lightning strike caused
one bullet train to stall and a sensor failure that allowed a
second train to keep moving on the same track and slam into
it.
The accident also prompted the railways authorities to
order safety checks of all the country`s train lines.
Huang said it was clear that there were deficiencies in the
safety management of the system.
"This was an accident that was both avoidable and
preventable," he said.
Huang said the government would use the crash as a lesson,
though he asserted that China`s overall work safety situation
a longtime headache given the dismal record in many industries
such as mining — has shown clear improvements.
"There have been no `especially severe` mining accidents
in the past 10 months," he said.
PTI
