By Rick Dewsbury
Last updated at 3:46 PM on 28th December 2011
Tragedy: A derailed carriage plunges to the ground after the fatal crash in China in July
The Chinese government has warned 54 rail bosses that they will face punishment after a crash that killed 40 people was found to have been caused by lax safety standards.
The authorities have struggled to address public fury over the accident near the booming coastal city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, in July, when a high-speed train rammed into another one stranded on the track after being hit by lightning.?? ?
Premier Wen Jiabao vowed that the investigation would be thorough and transparent - though the cabinet's report was pushed back from mid-September for technical reasons and to give the team more time to pour over documents. ?? ?
An account of the conclusions of the investigation presented to Wen at a cabinet meeting said the accident was due to serious design flaws in control equipment and improper handling of the lightning strike, broadly in line with initial findings.?? ?
The Railways Ministry 'did not properly handle rescue efforts, did not issue information in a timely manner and did not correctly address public concerns, which created a bad influence in society', the central government said in a statement.?? ?
The accident prompted a huge public outcry on social networking services, with users expressing anger at the perceived poor official response and pulling apart accounts of the crash and the rescue efforts.?? ?
Seeking to assuage public anger, the government fired three mid-level railway officials a day after the crash.?? ?
The report detailed 54 officials who would receive administrative punishments, and said more serious penalties could follow for them.
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It was not yet clear if those officials will be prosecuted or ultimately receive the death penalty, which is legal and used regularly in the Communist state, where more prisoners are killed every year than in the rest of the world combined.
In 2009, the former boss of Beijing airport was executed for corruption. Li Peiying, 60, was found guilty of bribery and embezzling ?11million since 1995.
Disaster: Rescue workers try to secure the wreckage of the trains after the crash. Lax safety and poor handling have been blamed in a report
Collision: The carriages hang perilously on the bridge in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province of China. One expert said he thought human error may have been involved
Accident: Cranes lift the wreckage from the tracks after the tragedy in which 40 people were killed
A month earlier the former chairman of China's second-biggest oil company, Sinopec, was convicted of taking ?18million in bribes and given a suspended death sentence.
Thousands of people are believed to be executed in China every year.
'Legal authorities are currently conducting an independent investigation in accordance with the law into whether or not these relevant responsible officials committed crimes,' the report into the rail crash said.
It laid particular blame at the door of former railways minister Liu Zhijun, though he was dismissed months before the crash, in February, over corruption charges that have not yet been tried in court.??
Liu 'has the main leadership responsibility for the accident', it said.?? ?
Current minister Sheng Guangzu would have to present a 'thorough self-criticism' to the cabinet, it added, demanding the ministry and companies which made the faulty control systems drastically improve the way they operate.???
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says the investigation would be thorough and transparent
'Completely upgrade the safety management level of the railways, especially when it comes to building and operating high-speed railways,' the report added. ?? ?
Bloggers were quick to denounce the findings, suggesting the government still has a long way to go to restore public trust.?? ?
'This probe will become an international joke' wrote 'hjerryzhu' on the Twitter-like site Sina Weibo.?? ?
'The Communist Party has become a byword for hypocrisy, lies and violence,' said 'kaherd'.?? ?
The government has said it would suspend railway project approvals and launch safety checks on equipment to address anger after the Wenzhou crash on what was a new high-speed rail line.?? ?
The ministry plans to cut its annual railway investment by 15 percent in 2012 to 400 billion yuan, state media said last week. ?? ?
The ministry also faces soaring debt. In August, it said its total liabilities at the end of June were 2.1 trillion yuan ($330 million), up by nearly half from the end of 2009 and bringing its liability-to-asset ratio up to 59 percent. ?? ?
However, the government said it remained committed to building high-speed railways, which China plans eventually to run into Russia and down to Southeast Asia.?? ?
'High speed railways improve people's ability to travel and promote economic development. Building and developing high speed railways is the correct course,' it said in a separate statement. ?? ?
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