A total of 116,858 people died in over 940,000 accidents in China in the first 11 months of last year, up 26.5 percent from the same period of 2000, according to official sources.

Zhang Baoming, director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), the country's top watchdog on production safety, said 81.5 percent of the casualties were caused by transportation accidents, which saw a year-on-year increase of 11.3 percentage points.

The coal industry, despite the worrying lack of safety in many of the country's mines, recorded a death toll of 5,395 last year, a decrease of 403 from the year before, Zhang said, adding that deaths caused by fire in the first 11 months also saw a year-on-year decrease of 459.

Last year, accidents causing more than 10 deaths also dropped in number and no accidents occurred which caused over 100 deaths.

Zhang said China's work on production safety this year will focus on regulations for dangerous chemical products and coal mines, and measures will be taken to improve safety in transportation, fireworks plants and fire control in public places.

A law on production safety will probably be passed in June this year, Zhang added.

( People's Daily January 17, 2002)