(Ecns.cn)--Headway has been made in mine safety and the occurrence of accidents has declined, yet China's coal mines are still among the deadliest in the world. According to industry experts, many of the country's mine tragedies could have been prevented.
According to Chen Hong, professor at the School of Management at China University of Mining and Technology, "Among direct causes, human factors caused 97.67 percent of all coal mine accidents. That figure comes from a case study of 1,203 accidents that involved casualties between 1980 and 2000 in China."
"Workers operating against the rules, lax regulation and unsafe instructions from managers are among the main causes of coal mine accidents in China," he added, citing the study.
A senior mine manager from Yankuang Group who has worked in the industry for over 30 years told a reporter from China Economic Weekly, "Most of the accidents I know of were caused by things we did, things we could control."
"Major mine accidents cannot be predicted, because our knowledge of nature is quite limited, but sporadic accidents are usually human-caused," said Yin Shaoyuan, a coal digger from Yankuang Group.
"All coal mine enterprises want to prevent accidents, but we have no safety standards at all. When there is an accident, the mine manager, the section chief and the district head will all be sacked," revealed Wang Fei, a deputy manager of a colliery in Anhui Province.
Chen added, "Though the death toll of colliery accidents in China is decreasing gradually, the number of deaths still amounts to 70 percent of the world total."
It is found that China has efficiently controlled major coal accidents at a limited level in the past two years. However, the number of deaths in sporadic accidents continues an upward trend.
"Most of the sporadic accidents occurred unexpectedly, which usually resulted from negligence," said Xiao Yaomeng, chief engineer of the Yankuang Group.
"In China, it seems that only the poor and people of the lowest level are willing to participate in the coal mining industry. Among them, more than 80 percent are rural migrant workers who are not well educated. They usually do not have a sense of safety," said Wang Zhenping, assistant chief engineer of the Yankuang Group.
Mining workers usually have little or no social status in China. Chen said that more attention should be paid to these workers, who deserve equal respect from society. Enterprises should be more responsible and strengthen their management and supervision of migrant workers.
Chen also called for new safety systems and stricter enforcement of safety standards to effectively curb coal mine accidents in China.
According to the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety (SACMS), 2,433 miners died in coal mine accidents in China in 2010, down 7.5 percent compared with 2,631 deaths in 2009.
