Chinese media and public reacted with anger today to a fatal high-speed
Chinese media and public reacted with anger today to a fatal high-speed train crash, with even official newspapers saying safety controls on the rapidly-expanding network may have been too lax.
Popular micro-blogging sites buzzed with criticism of the official response to the disaster, which killed at least 36 people and wounded nearly 200 more according to the latest government figures.
The Global Times daily said the collision, which initial reports said was caused by a lightning strike cutting power to one train which was then hit by the other, had “caused doubt toward the nation’s railway construction plans”.
“The deadly crash on Saturday should become a bloody lesson for the entire railway industry in China. It should become a starting point for safer railway standards,” it said.
Posters on the Twitter-like micro-blogging site Weibo expressed anger and suspicion, accusing authorities of “burying” evidence that could have helped determine the cause of the collision.
Emergency workers at the crash site were seen using heavy machinery to bury the wreckage, and Chinese authorities have been quoted as saying this was to protect the country’s technological secrets.
The government on Sunday moved to ease public concern, sacking three senior officials at the Shanghai railway bureau and launching an “urgent overhaul” of national rail safety.
China’s high-speed rail network only opened to passengers in 2007, but has grown at breakneck speed thanks to huge state funding and is already the largest in the world.
But some experts say the speed of growth has exposed the system to problems, and in recent weeks, delays and power outages have plagued a flagship new high-speed link between Beijing and Shanghai.
Many newspapers focused on the story of a two-year-old girl pulled alive from the wreckage 21 hours after the accident.
Pictures of the girl, whose parents were believed to be among those killed and who is now receiving treatment in a local hospital, appeared on many front pages.
Source AFP