Five men whose negligence caused an accident during the construction of a Beijing subway line and killed three workers have been put behind bars.

Their sentences ranged from eight months to two years.

Yesterday it emerged that the Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court made the judgment recently.

In February, the steel cable of a crane collapsed at a construction site at the No 10 metro line, killing three.

According to the judgment, the first defendant Zhang Yuefa had arranged for his nephew, the second defendant Wang Cheng, to act as the crane driver. But Wang, a minor, did not have any professional training and held a fake crane driving licence.

"Zhang arranged for workers to operate the crane when he knew clearly there were safety problems. His behaviour resulted in the accident directly," the court decision said.

The third defendant Yang Shukai signed a document to guarantee the safety of the crane when he knew the equipment itself had safety problems.

The fourth defendant Li Yingping, chief of the equipment department of the construction site, also signed a document to guarantee the safety of the crane after carelessly examining it, while the fifth defendant Xiang Shan, a maintenance worker, failed to report problems with the crane.

The court said Zhang, Yang, Li and Xiang failed to adopt effective measures to tackle safety issues, which resulted in the accident.

The four were sentenced to imprisonment of between one and two years respectively for negligently causing a serious accident.

Crane driver Wang was sentenced to eight months for the same crime after a court trial in a private session.

The five defendants said they would not appeal to any higher court.

(China Daily October 9, 2006)