Construction accidents surge in May as work resumes

During the first five months of this year, there were 122 construction accidents in Shanghai, leading to 131 fatalities, according to recent information from the city's emergency bureau. 

While this represents a substantial overall decrease from the same period last year, accidents surged more than 50 percent year on year in May alone, leading to 24 deaths.

The accidents mainly occurred at construction sites for buildings, railways and water conservancy projects.

When asked about the sudden spike, emergency bureau director Ma Jianghong said it was mainly due to the long break caused by the epidemic and lack of safety management.

“Many companies didn’t make adequate preparations before resuming work, such as the inspection of facilities and safety education for staff. They might have also tightened schedules to finish work, which could lead to violations of operation rules.”

Shanghai recently released a three-year plan to improve work safety, which aims to raise safety awareness and implement a responsibility and management system.

Nine high-risk fields are listed in the plan for further improvements, including hazardous chemicals, explosives, fire protection, road transportation, industrial parks and urban construction.

“More needs to be done apart from these nine fields. We will continue to enhance our capabilities to control accidents and improve overall safety levels,” Ma said.