Chinese vice PM stresses work safety

Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai on Wednesday stressed that government at all levels and enterprises must continue to strive for work safety and cut down accidents. He said at a national conference on production safety that better safety supervision helped decrease accidents and causalities in 2013. Ma demanded stronger awareness of pursuing work safety. He also asked to enhance the accountability system in which enterprises and local governments must shoulder major responsibility in preventing accidents. His remarks highlighted the safety in coal mines, road transportation and oil and gas pipelines, which need regular checks and fire-fighting measures, especially for construction sites, crowded places and underground locations. China's top work safety watchdog just completed an investigation into a fatal pipeline blast that claimed 62 lives in the eastern city of Qingdao on Nov. 22. The direct reason for the accident was repair staffs' drilling operations that produced sparks and caused an explosion fuelled by oil leaked from a pipeline owned by a subsidiary of Sinopec, the country's largest oil refiner. A total of 63 people will be penalized, with 48 of them to receive punishments for violating Party and administrative disciplines and 15 others having been transferred to judicial organs for their alleged crimes.