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As much as we want the high-speed railway that will shorten the travel time between Shanghai and Beijing to just four hours to be finished, we'd rather it get done a little slower if it means we can prevent the startling amount of worker accidents that have been happening. Most recently, four workers were crushed to death and two others were injured when a 10-ton crane crashed into another crane during a heavy rainstorm. In March, seven workers were buried when the railway construction site in Jiangsu collapsed. Are worker deaths this frequent in other parts of the world too? Source: Shanghai Daily
Four workers die on Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway construction site
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no, accidents like this are not as common in the rest of the world. even accounting for the population of the two countries, i'd estimate china's rate of worker fatalities (based on government numbers) to be 5 times as high.
in 2007, the US recorded 5657 worker fatalities for the year; so far this year (6 months), china has had about 40 000. references below.
my guess is that this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, however, as what the US government includes in its numbers vs. what the chinese government includes is likely different.
from malcolm moore (twitter.com/malcolmmoore) yesterday:
Almost 40,000 workers died accidentally in China between January and June this year. http://bit.ly/LV0Xf
@MalcolmMoore FYI 2007 US worker deaths: 5657. even accounting for china's greater population, the rate is much higher (http://bit.ly/qxbKY)
although i *should* point out that i don't mean to unfairly criticize or promote either government. obviously the scale of infrastructure projects in china is enormous (which i would guess is dangerous work), and the skill and experience level of the two workforces is not comparable.
further, the ability to enforce worker-protection laws (and the award of compensation for injuries) is obviously different in the two countries, probably contributing to differing attitudes towards workplace safety.
my point is not to cast chinese worker safety in a negative light, only to emphasize that it's something all local parties should push to improve.
In the last year, we have had a rash of worker fatalities due to collapsing buildings and the toppling of construction cranes in New York City.