Toward more effective regulation

A total of 76 people have been killed in three accidents since Aug 13, according to State Administration of Work Safety reports.

In one of the worst accidents in recent years, 45 people were killed in a coal mine explosion outside Panzhihua city in Sichuan province on Aug 29. Thirty-six people traveling in a double-decker coach were killed when their vehicle collided with a tanker and caught fire on a highway in Shaanxi province on Aug 26. On the same day, three people were killed and five injured in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, when the ramp of a less-than-a-year-old bridge built at a cost of $300 million crashed on the pavement below. And in early August, seven cave-ins were reported from Harbin in just nine days in which two people were killed and two injured.

The accidents were caused either because of the use of substandard products to build infrastructure or because of violation of safety norms. It is to prevent such accidents that government regulatory agencies have to take measures in advance. To protect the life and property of users and consumers, regulators have to instruct enterprises engaged in construction projects to take all safety precautions and improve the quality of their products and services.