Crane team blamed for tourist tragedy

By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-27 08:03

Six construction workers have been accused of "negligence" following a fatal accident in Taiwan in which a crane fell onto a bus carrying 25 mainland tourists.

Two were killed and three more were injured on Friday when the machinery plunged 37 floors onto the rear of a coach in the Hsin-i district of Taipei.

A preliminary investigation has found the construction site was not properly blockaded and the crane was overloaded, said Lai Cheng-sheng, the district's chief prosecutor, speaking in the local Central Daily News.

He said that "negligence" was likely the major cause of the tragedy.

The six workers - an engineer, a team leader, a crane operator and three other workers from the crane operations team - posted between T$100,000 ($297) and T$500,000 bail on Saturday, the newspaper reported.

The tourists unharmed in the accident have all now returned home to Dongguan, via Hong Kong, as scheduled, reported Guangzhou Daily, while the relatives of those killed or injured arrived in Taipei on Saturday.

One victim, Zhang Shiguang, was yesterday "still in a coma and on the verge of death", said doctors.

Wu Ch'ao-yen, general secretary of the local tourism bureau, said the co-organizers of the trip, Taipei Guolu Travel Agency, had purchased life insurance contracts for all 25 tourists, offering up to T$300,000 in compensation, Central Daily News reported.

Meanwhile, Chen Xihui, vice-director of the Taiwan affairs office in Dongguan, said the government would make efforts to help ship the bodies back home. But he said cooperation was needed from Taipei to streamline the procedures of several agencies, such as inspection and quarantine, and customs, Guangdong Daily reported.