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Alarm sounds for safety
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Han Ximin
OFFICIALS have urged all firms, organizations and individuals in the city to prevent accidents as latest statistics showed accidents in Shenzhen have left almost 300 people dead and more than 400 injured in the first five months of the year.
The municipal government is also rushing to lay down regulations to strengthen supervision and enforce responsibility in industrial safety.
Speaking at a meeting on fatal and catastrophic accidents on Monday, officials said 292 were killed in more than 1,200 traffic and industrial accidents and fires, with the number of accidents rising by almost 18 per cent from the same period last year.
Officials pointed at dangers in construction sites, ramshackle buildings, roads, scattered storage of chemicals and perilous products and public areas like schools, catering clubs, which are short of fire-fighting facilities.
According to officials, 257 people died in traffic accidents from January to May this year. They blamed inappropriate road planning and the use of out-of-service vehicles for the high death toll.
Officials also slammed builders for ignoring the safety of their workers. They said eight people had been killed and five seriously injured in eight construction accidents in the period, a 33.3 per cent increase in death toll from the same period in 2000.
Several brutal fires and explosions this year have prompted the Central Government to introduce new rules holding local officials responsible for accidents. China this week announced a reshuffle of top jobs in Shijiazhuang City, capital of North China's Hebei Province, and Nanchang City, in the southern province of Jiangxi, in the aftermath of the fatal explosions that killed 108 people in Shijiazhuang in March and the deadly fire that left 13 toddlers dead in Nanchang earlier this month.
Wang Suiming, vice-mayor of Shenzhen, said on Monday that new rules in the making would make corporate leaders accountable for any accident occurring in their firms.
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