(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-15 07:19

As families continued to mourn the nine people killed in the Jiujiang Bridge disaster on June 15, the nation was yesterday rocked by the news of an even more shocking incident that happened on Monday.

Twenty-nine workers were killed and 46 are still missing after the bridge they were building in Fenghuang, a tourist destination in central Hunan Province, crumbled on top of them.

As rescue work goes on under the supervision of officials from both provincial and national bodies, we cross our fingers and hope for those still missing.

We hope they will be as lucky as the 69 miners who were rescued last month from a flooded coal mine in Henan Province.

Although summer often bears witness to natural disasters, such as floods and heat waves, no one can blame Mother Nature for this latest bridge collapse.

While we wait for the official investigation to shed light on the cause of the incident, it seems possible that human factors might have loomed large behind the sorry scene.

According to the local work safety authority, the bridge had recently been completed and was due to open to traffic in a month. The collapse occurred as workers were removing scaffolding from it. It is rational to deduce that either an operational mistake was made or a structural defect triggered the collapse.

A great invention of human beings, bridges help us surmount natural barriers, and the country boasts a number of old ones built by our ancestors that are still in good shape.

Given the techniques and building materials we use today are more advanced and safer, it is inexcusable that a brand-new bridge should collapse on top of those who built it.

The public deserves a full account of the cause of the accident, and as there is now a safety accountability system for officials, it is necessary to ascertain where the responsibility lies.

This bloody lesson should also prompt a sweeping check of the safety procedures in place at all current bridge construction projects.

Supervisors should not be slack in their duties when inspecting and approving newly built bridges, as any flaws in the work could cost human lives and bring about heavy economic losses.

(China Daily 08/15/2007 page10)