1st Ld-Writethru: Officials pledge better work, traffic safety

Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong said Saturday China will do more to ensure that workplace safety rules are better enforced.

"Work safety in China still faces severe situation, despite progress," Wang said while answering legislators' questions at a joint inquiry meeting.

The meeting, attended by top legislator Zhang Dejiang, is part of the ongoing bimonthly session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

Legislation on work safety will be improved, and supervision and inspections enhanced, Wang said.

Authorities will focus on key industries and sectors, preventing serious accidents, Wang added.

In answering a legislator's question about recent major safety accidents in coal mines, Yang Huanning, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, said inadequate investment in equipment upgrades and weak safety management have led to the accidents.

Work safety authorities will send out staff to over 7,000 coal mines nationwide for supervision, and dispatch 30 secret investigation teams to mines at city-level or below, according to Yang.

Meanwhile, regions or mines spotted with work safety problems will be named and shamed, Yang added.

During the meeting, Chen Zhenggao, minister of housing and urban-rural development, called for standardized supervision and management over the construction and quality of houses in rural areas, as frequent accidents in this regard have occurred in China.

According to vice minister of agriculture Chen Xiaohua, China has around 25 million tractors and combine harvesters, with over 1,000 people killed in safety and traffic accidents related to farm machinery on average each year.

"We have enhanced management on plates and driving licenses for tractors and combine harvesters, and provided subsidies for farmers to buy farm machinery of high quality," said Chen.

During the inquiry, legislators also discussed a report on traffic safety.

To safeguard road safety, transport minister Li Xiaopeng promised better channels for the public reporting on illegally modified or overloaded trucks, and tougher punishments for the violators. Endi