(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-07 21:23

China's State Council on Friday said that 24 people would stand trial for their involvement in the country's worst bridge collapse, which killed 64 people and injured 22 this year.

Rescuers carry the body of a victim discovered from the wreckage of a collapsed bridge in Fenghuang County, Central China's Hunan Province, August, 18, 2007. [Newsphoto]

The accident happened at around 4:40 pm on August 13 when a bridge  over the Tuojiang River in Fenghuang County, Central China's Hunan Province, collapsed. The 328-meter-long, 42-meter-high structure was still under construction at the time of the accident.

About 152 workers were working at the four-arch bridge when it fell apart, an estimated 123 dismantling steel scaffolding off the bridge, which was scheduled to open to traffic at the end of the month. Construction started in March 2004.

The bridge was planned to link Fenghuang County, a popular tourist spot, with Daxing airport in Tongren City, neighboring Guizhou Province.

"This is a severe man-made accident," said a statement released from an executive meeting of the State Council.

The meeting accepted recommendations of the special panel set up to investigate into the accident concerning the punishments of people and organizations responsible for the accident.

It demanded that the Hunan provincial government must see to it that the 24 individuals responsible be prosecuted on criminal charges and disciplinary actions taken against officials who should assume "leadership responsibilities".

Previous reports said the police have detained Xia Youjia, a construction manager, and Jiang Ping, a project supervisor, shortly after the accident happened.

Conclusions of the special panel and punishments handed out should be made public, the statement said.

There had been worries among workers about the possible collapse of the bridge. "The bridge has a rather wide span," said an injured worker named Long Shaozhong.

Long said he and other workers had a feeling that construction was proceeding too quickly, especially when they dismantled all the scaffolding before the concrete had completely dried.

The Caijing Magazine reported that an expert who declined to give his name said geological surveys before construction were not thoroughly carried out.

The expert said a big grotto, though not stated in the survey report, was discovered at the place where the bridge's No. 1 pier should be located.

The grotto was filled up with stone pieces, steel bars and sand.

The collapse had started with the No.1 pier, said the magazine citing workers at the site. However, the exact cause is yet to be announced by the official investigation panel.

On June 15, a bridge in south China's Guangdong Province also collapsed when a cargo vessel ploughed into a section of the 1,600-meter-long Jiujiang bridge that spans the Xijiang river, killing nine people.

The statement said concerned parties should strengthen safety supervision and controls to avoid any such accidents from happening again.