Society

Executives lied about death toll

By Jin Zhu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-09 10:11

The death toll from a gas pipeline leak at a steel plant in Hebei province has risen to 21 after company executives admitted covering up 14 deaths, local authorities said on Friday.

Senior executives of the Hebei Puyang Iron and Steel Co Ltd confessed on Thursday night that the company had underreported the number of deaths, according to a statement released by Wu'an city government on Friday.

The gas leak killed at least 21 and injured nine, said Ji Zhuanru, head of the publicity department of Wu'an.

Eight of the dead were from Wu'an, five were from Shexian county and eight from other provinces, Ji said.

The leak occurred at about 11:45 am on Monday. Workers were poisoned when assembling a furnace in Hebei Puyang Iron and Steel Co Ltd.

However, the company originally reported on Tuesday that 16 workers were poisoned, and of that number, seven were killed and the other nine were under medical treatment.

Company officials failed to report the accident immediately and tried to rescue the workers on their own without calling for help, Ji said.

Their rescue ended at around 2 pm on Monday.

The case was reported to the Wu'an administration of work safety at 8:20 pm on Monday. The administration dispatched officials to hospitals where the injured were being treated to investigate the incident.

The official investigation group said yesterday the cause of the leak was due to the workers' improper operation in that the gas supply was not cut off before connecting two furnaces together with a pipeline.

The gas pipeline was manufactured by Nanjing Sanye Utility Installment Company. However, no details of the company have been released.

"The Sanye company's latest annual check by the Administration of Industry and Commerce was in 2005. At present, its business license has been revoked," said Wu Ke, director of Qinhuai district's administration of work safety in Nanjing.

Further investigations will focus on the qualifications of the Sanye company and its cooperation with the Puyang company, the official from the investigation group said.

At present, senior executives in Puyang company, who were in charge of safety, are being held in criminal custody. Some local officials have been dismissed from their posts for neglecting their supervisory duties.

The country's Regulations on Reporting and Handling Production Safety Accidents has been implemented officially since July 12, 2007.

Companies issuing false reports or hiding the truth of an accident are compelled to pay a fine of 1 million ($116,000) to 5 million yuan. Principals responsible for the accident have to pay 60 percent to 100 percent of their entire year's salary as a fine. In the case of fatal accidents, those responsible would be prosecuted for criminal liability, the regulation says.

A former reporter from Farmers' Daily was sentenced to a prison term of 16 years earlier this year for his involvement in hiding a fatal mine collapse on July 14, 2008 in the county of Wei, Hebei.

Before that, 48 officials and mine managers were punished or detained for covering up the accident, which claimed 35 lives.