Deaths from workplace accidents fall in first 2 months

BEIJING -- China's workplace safety record has improved, with the number of accidents and fatalities both dropping in the first two months, data from the Ministry of Emergency Management showed.

The number of workplace safety accidents fell 6.1 percent year-on-year during the January-February period, while related fatalities went down 16.8 percent, Sun Huashan, vice minister of emergency management, said at a press conference on Friday.

In the first two months, China saw two cases of "serious" accidents, compared with four in the same period of last year, and reported no cases of "particularly serious" accidents.

In China, "serious" accidents refer to those that cause a death toll of 10-30 people, leave 50-100 severely injured or result in direct economic losses of between 50 million yuan (about $7.46 million) and 100 million yuan.

"Particularly serious" accidents refer to those that cause more than 30 deaths, leave more than 100 severely injured or result in more than 100 million yuan in direct economic losses.

A shuttle vehicle taking 50 workers underground lost control due to faulty brakes and crashed into the side of the tunnel at a lead, zinc and silver mine in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Feb 23, killing 22. Ten suspects were detained for allegedly "negligently causing a serious accident," and five officials were under investigation.

China has over 1,000 emergency rescue teams consisting of more than 72,000 people, who play a professional and crucial role in accident and disaster relief.