China's work safety authorities said Friday that 46 work accidents involving a total death toll of 205 had been deliberately covered up in the first half of the year.

 

More than 86 percent of these deaths, or 177 people, died in colliery accidents. The remaining work safety deaths occurred in fireworks production, construction and other types of mines. "Production safety conditions in China has been improving but severe accidents are unfortunately still a regular occurrence," Wang Dexue, vice director of the State Administration of Work Safety said in a liaison meeting organized by the State Council Work Safety Committee.

 

A total of 45,564 people died in accidents in the first six months, with more than 80 percent of these deaths occurring in road accidents. Unlike most countries, China combines industrial and transport accidents in its statistics.

 

While the official overall accident toll is down 14 percent on the same period of last year, the number of severe accidents involving 10-29 deaths has risen in the coal mining and construction sectors.

 

Geographically, Liaoning, Shanxi, Zhejiang, Hebei, Henan and Inner Mongolia -- the key coal-producing regions -- reported more severe accidents in the first six months than in the same period last year.

 

Unauthorized mining, cargo and passenger transportation, construction and the production and storage of fireworks and explosives remain black spots in the country's production safety record.

 

Other factors are poor coal mining management, flawed operations in the production, storage, sale and use of dangerous chemicals, reckless driving and poor road safety education. The State Administration of Work Safety have pledged to severely punish individuals who dare to cover up accidents. Those who abscond after accidents will receive the strictest punishments stipulated by law, it warns.

 

Official figures reveal that 1,415 people died in railway accidents in the first six months, 898 in fires excluding forest fires, while 176 people died or went missing in waterway accidents.

 

The official road accident figure is 36,939 lives lost, down 12 percent year-on-year, but still representing more than eighty percent of the total accident death toll.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2007)