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发帖数: 4825 | 1 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/world/asia/design-flaws-cited
BEIJING — Chinese investigators on Wednesday delivered a long-awaited
report into the deadly July 23 high-speed train crash in the eastern coastal
city of Wenzhou, attributing it to a string of blunders, including serious
design flaws in crucial equipment used to signal and control the trains. Two
top former officials of the Railway Ministry — who had already been under
investigation for corruption — were singled out for blame.
The disaster was a serious setback to China’s hopes to turn high-speed rail
into a symbol of the nation’s technological and industrial progress. It
also led to an online wave of public outrage that only died down after
government authorities muzzled the domestic media. The intense public
reaction to the accident and the bungled rescue effort that followed are
considered major reasons why the government is now instituting tighter
controls of Internet message boards known as microblogs.
The crash investigators found that faulty equipment was purchased in a
process tainted with bidding irregularities and was cleared for use after
substandard safety inspections. They said lightning strikes caused the
signaling and track equipment on the Wenzhou line to malfunction, leading to
the rear-end collision on a viaduct that killed 40 people and injured 191.
Investigators put the bulk of the responsibility for the disaster on Liu
Zhijun, the former railway minister, and Zhang Shuguang, the Railway
Ministry’s deputy chief engineer, who reportedly controlled the bidding
process for high-speed rail system. Both were removed from office early this
year and are subjects of a criminal inquiry into corruption.
Investigators also singled out Ma Cheng, the former head of China Railway
Signal & Communication Corporation, who died of a heart attack a month after
the disaster. The massive state-owned enterprise was the principal
contractor on the Wenzhou line and provided the signaling equipment that
failed at the Wenzhou South Station, the report said.
The investigators’ findings were presented Wednesday afternoon to the State
Council, China’s equivalent of the Cabinet. They recommended that 54
individuals be punished for problems in the development, purchase and use of
the flawed equipment, for failing to respond properly to the accident and
for mishandling the rescue effort.
Officials “did not disclose information and did not respond to the concerns
of the public in time,” the report said. “Both caused a negative impact
in the society.”
The report, which was posted online, did not address the question of whether
the same design flaw threatens the signaling equipment on China’s other
high-speed lines. Government sources quoted by a Shanghai newspaper last
summer said that the same faulty signaling equipment had been installed at
58 railway stations and 18 signal relaying stations.
Any acknowledgement of systematic flaws could hurt China’s hopes of
exporting its high-speed rail equipment and technology. But customers might
also back away if the inquiry is seen as incomplete or a whitewash.
In fact, the government’s report provided few new details about what went
wrong. After the accident, officials quickly pinpointed a design flaw in the
signaling equipment. They also blamed poorly trained station workers for
failing to notice that lightning strikes had caused a signaling malfunction
and to stop the trains.
Authorities subsequently ordered a safety review of all high speed trains
and suspended the construction of new lines pending safety checks. According
to Xinhua, China’s official news agency, the State Council also reduced
the top speed of high-speed trains from 217 miles per hour to 186. .
The disaster threw a spotlight on skulduggery in the Railways Ministry, a
fiefdom of two million workers that owns the railways it regulates, an
inherent conflict of interest.
Caixin, a Chinese magazine known for aggressive reporting, disclosed last
week that Mr. Zhang, the ministry’s former chief engineer who was singled
out for blame by investigators, had purchased a luxurious home in Los
Angeles in 2002 The magazine estimated the cost of the house, which Mr.
Zhang bought with his wife, at roughly $860,000, or about 7.12 million
renminbi. His Railway Ministry salary at the time was about 2,200 renminbi a
month, or about $347 at today’s exchange rates, the magazine said.
Caixin said Mr. Zhang had served for many years as the right-hand man and
confidant of Mr. Liu, the former railways minister. |
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