There were 980,969 work-related accidents resulting in injury in the first 11 months of 2002 and they caused the death of more than 124,500 people, China Daily said. The figures were released by Wang Xianzheng, head of the state administration of work safety in a national televised conference on work safety held in January. He blamed lack of safety awareness, poor infrastructure and loopholes in management and supervision.
The administration pledged to launch special supervision programmes in many sectors, particularly coal mines and sites manufacturing or using dangerous chemicals. Wang also said that priority should be given to improving safety on public transport, especially in the run-up to the Chinese New Year holiday.