Facing the "hazards of civilization" that have come with modernization, China must have sufficient risk awareness and adequate countermeasures.

After a high-speed train rear-ended another one on July 23, the central government has drawn particular attention to the relief work, and the work — rescue, medical treatment and notification of relatives — was initiated as soon as possible. It was moving that many Wenzhou residents proactively went to the site of the accident to help transfer passengers and queued to donate blood overnight.

The high-speed train crash was the latest in a "summer filled with accidents." Because the accident relates to a railway that has always been considered safe, it has led to a considerable social impact. The high frequency of safety incidents in a wide range of sectors, including a bus fire, coal mine floods, an escalator failure and bridge collapses, has sounded a warning to the "society with hazards."

Incidents, such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and Japan's nuclear leak, have shown that the more sophisticated the technology is in the modern society, the more complicated the technology will be. The more advanced the technology is, the more interdependent and interactive the technology will be. A tiny mistake and any negligence of details will possibly lead to hazards.

Today's China is faced with many risks. The country has made remarkable progress in modernization in the last half century, while the same progress took Western countries several hundred years.

Unfortunately, many risks are unavoidable in the process of modernization. Urbanization, industrialization, informationization and modernization have brought both benefits and risks to the people. Therefore, people should be vigilant against possible dangers and develop effective countermeasures in order to attach a "safety belt" to the "era of rapid development."

China's railway sector has entered a "high speed" era after long efforts, ranking first in the world in terms of the total length and top speed of high-speed railways. China needs high-speed railways, but it should be noted that faster speeds, shorter intervals and more routes should be accompanied by better management systems and greater safety consciousness. This should be an essential principle for the development of high-speed railways.