The whole year saw 112,822 people killed in worksite accidents, down 11.2 percent over the previous year. The number of deaths per 100 million yuan of GDP was 0.56, down 20.4 percent. The number of deaths per 100,000 workers engaged in secondary and tertiary industry was 3.33, down 13.5 percent. The number of deaths per 1 million tons of coal mined was 2.04, down 27.4 percent. The year saw 378,781 road accidents, which resulted in 89,455 deaths, 431,000 people with injuries and direct economic losses of 1.49 billion yuan. The number of deaths per 10,000 road vehicles was 6.2, down 18.4 percent over the previous year.
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Firemen in an oil field in Gansu Province are in a fire drill. The work safety situation in China improved notably in 2006.
In 2006, the government shut down 2,652 small coalmines that failed to meet work safety standards, leading to a significant drop in the number of deaths per 1 million tons of coal mined.
Eleven major accidents in 2006 aroused the concern of the State Council and have so far been investigated and handled by the Ministry of Supervision and other related departments. Four of the accidents involved illegal production. A total of 283 people were held accountable. Among them, 117 were transferred to judicial organs for criminal investigation, and 166 were given Party and administrative disciplinary sanctions, including 45 who were removed from office. Those who were given Party and administrative disciplinary sanctions comprised two officials at the provincial (ministerial) level, 28 at the prefectural (departmental) level, 62 at the county (division) level and, and 74 at the sub-division level or below or in other categories.
Work safety remained generally stable across the country in 2006 with positive trends emerging and the number of accidents decreasing substantially. Deaths caused by accidents dropped 11.2 percent over the previous year. The number of major accidents also went down. Deaths in accidents each claiming more than 10 lives decreased 49 percent. Of these, deaths in accidents each claiming more than 30 lives plummeted 78 percent. There were no accidents with a death toll of more than 100 people.