Society

One dies on subway construction site in E China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-25 17:12

HANGZHOU - One worker died and another was injured Thursday after being buried by soil at a subway station construction site in east China's Zhejiang Province, the subway company said.

It was the same construction site where 21 workers were killed in 2008 when a tunnel collapsed.

The two men were repairing a small excavator in a pit when soil piled up on the rim of the pit destabilized and buried them in Hangzhou City, capital of Zhejiang at about 12:30 am, according to a statement from Hangzhou Metro Group.

The workers were immediately taken to a local hospital where one of them died while the other was in stable condition, the company said.

The accident occurred at the construction site of Xianghu Station of Subway Line One, the same place where a massive tunnel collapse killed 21 people and injured 24 others on November 15, 2008.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, according to the statement.

In the 2008 case, a court ruling blamed the accident on violations of construction rules, problems in the supporting systems and moulding procedures, and project monitoring failure. Ten people were prosecuted for dereliction of duty and 11 others were given administrative penalties.