REGIONAL> Society
Hearing opens on bridge collapse
By Li Wenfang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-06 07:38

GUANGZHOU: The two parties accused of sailing a barge into a bridge on the Xijiang River in Guangdong province and causing it to collapse appealed in court on Sunday for the case to be reinvestigated.

Nine people were killed when the Jiujiang Bridge in Guangdong province collapsed after being hit by the sand barge on June 15, 2007.

The defendants - the owner of the barge, Yang Xiong, and its operator, the Foshan South Sea Yuhang Shipping Co - argued that the 1,600-m bridge may have collapsed by itself, as its piers were laid shallow in the riverbed.

They also questioned the bridge operator's right to collect tolls.

The owner of the bridge, Guangdong Foshan-Kaiping Expressway Co is suing the defendants at the Guangzhou Maritime Court for 25.58 million yuan ($3.7 million) in lost tolls.

The defendants argued that the toll road regulation implemented by the State Council in 2004 states a cap of 25 years on the collection of tolls, which rendered the new evidence presented by the plaintiff illegal.

The plaintiff presented the document handed down by the Ministry of Communications in 1995 for collecting tolls along the bridge for 30 years as proof of its legitimate right to collect tolls.

It also said the toll collecting permit given by the price bureau did not expire until July that year.

On the responsibility for the bridge collapse, the defendants said it was already close to collapse before the accident, as parts of the piers were 30 cm above the riverbed.

The plaintiff said the piers were laid in the rock but agreed their depths in the riverbed were close to those given by the defendants.

An investigative team decided five days after the accident occurred that the direct cause of the collapse was the impact of the barge and that the indirect causes were related to poor management of the sand barge.

(China Daily 01/06/2009 page5)