China blames design flaws for rail crash

BEIJING, Dec 30 (AFP): China said recently design flaws and poor management were to blame for a fatal high-speed rail crash in July that sparked public fury, and that 54 people would be punished for the disaster. The highly critical statement from the State Council, or cabinet, said the railway ministry had mishandled the rescue and failed to address public concern after the disaster, which killed at least 40 people and wounded nearly 200. "The Ministry of Railways did not properly handle rescue efforts, did not issue information quickly, and failed to address public concerns in the proper fashion," the statement said. "The China Railway Signal and Communication Corp, the main signalling equipment contractor, did not fulfil its full responsibility, which resulted in serious design flaws and security risks in the equipment it supplied." The accident in the eastern city of Wenzhou triggered a flood of criticism of the government and led authorities to freeze the rapid expansion of China's ambitious high-speed rail network, already the world's most extensive. The crash-China's worst rail accident since 2008 -- also sparked accusations that the government had compromised safety in its rush to develop. Users of the country's hugely popular microblogs demanded to know why the system failed to inform the driver of one train that the train in front had halted, and also questioned whether the death toll might be higher than authorities admitted. Even China's official media weighed in, with the People's Daily newspaper-the Communist Party's mouthpiece-saying the country did not need "blood-soaked GDP". On Wednesday the State Council said the former railway minister Liu Zhijun and Zhang Shuguang, former deputy chief engineer at the railway ministry, would be among those punished for the accident. Liu was sacked in February over corruption charges, after he allegedly took more than 800 million yuan ($125 million) in kickbacks over several years on contracts linked to the high-speed network. China's high-speed rail system only opened to passengers in 2007, but grew at breakneck speed thanks to huge state funding and is already the largest in the world, with 8,358 kilometres (5,193 miles) of track at the end of last year. In December 2010, the railways ministry announced that a Chinese high-speed train had reached a speed of 486 kilometres per hour, smashing the world record for an unmodified train. But earlier this year, cracks started to emerge. China's state auditor in March said construction companies and individuals last year siphoned off 187 million yuan in funds meant for a flagship new Beijing-Shanghai link that launched just before the crash. Authorities decided to limit speeds on the high-speed network to 300 kph following the allegations of widespread, high-level graft in the rail sector, with fears that safety had been compromised.